How old before being a latchkey kid?

[Joysmum]

I'm a SAHM and considering a return to paid employment now my DD is at senior school.

I'm wondering how old peoples children were before they were considered old enough to be home alone after school for a couple of hours and not requiring childcare?

Likewise, how old was your child before you allowed them the be home alone in school hols and not needing childcare?

I'm just trying to work out the finances and whether it's worth going full time or part time. Thank you

Growing up I was home alone after school at the age of ten and same with m neighbour and best friend at the time so we hung out home wnout adults, me and my buddy. We were fine and didn't get into trouble. But now times have changed. Ten might be too young?

My son was in year 7 and my daughter in year 6 when me and my ex split up, so they were home after school alone and during the holidays (He was a SAHP before then) they were fine. I had a few rules, no friends around and no cooking with the gas hob, as i was worried they would leave it on. During the summer holidays i tried to arrange stuff such as sports clubs and they went to my parents for a few weeks. Just make sure you leave a spare key with someone near as mine we forever forgetting them.

I got my housekey when I was ten and wore it round my neck! I used to go straight to the local library after school and read for ages, and then wander down the road. It got so my mum looked in for me at the library at 5.40 on her way home and we walked back together, as I preferred the library to being home alone. I loved it, and read everything. I was first to read through all the Jackie Collins and Jilly Cooper for example! Haha. But it did me no harm!!! School hols I was shipped off on Scripture Union camps and Guide camps, and had days at friends from what i recall. My two are too young to apply this to, but a bit of independence does them good, especially in this day and age of mobile phones so you can check up!

My ds (10) is allowed to walk home from school (3 mins) and let himself in and amuse himself until his sister (12) gets home from secondary school about 15 minutes later. And they will be alone together for about an hour until I get home from work. Occasionally.

Interesting. Found this as I'm wondering the same thing as you Joysmum.

I'm currently back at full time work with ds 13 (year 9) and dd 9 (year 5) and paying an after school child minder to collect dd from school (2 miles away) and look after her for 2/3 hrs after school (ds catches the bus home with his friends).

I'm thinking I should really only be doing this for another year, and then letting them catch the bus home together when they will be 14 and 10. But I'm not 100% certain that's ok, or if it's appropriate to leave 14 year old ds in charge of collecting dd from school?

Not many of her friends go home alone or with older siblings yet, so its hard to gauge if this is acceptable. I should think if your dd is in secondary school then she should be fine to go home and look after herself for a couple of hours. I guess it really depends on the personality and maturity of the child and the distance from the school.

However if it helps you in anyway, I was 8 when I used to walk home from school and let myself in. I usually walked most of the way with a couple of friends, and I looked after myself for a couple of hours until mum got home. I don't think that was too unusual in the deep dark 80's

Thank you all for your responses.

I'm happy that she mature enough to be home alone on a regular basis after school now, she's home alone from time to time as I don't rush back from whatever I'm doing to get her used to being more independent. I was more concerned about the longer periods during school hols but tbh I'm pretty certain she'll be fine with that too. I was just curious to see if I was in a minority? I haven't seen many people talking about childcare for 11-12 year olds so it can't be that common to have paid childcare for kids that age can it?

Nobody round here does paid childcare once they get to secondary.

We did in Yr 7 for dd but that was only because she was wheelchair bound and couldn't physically get the wheelchair into the house on her own. And even then SS seemed to think we might be babying her.

Thanks Cory.

I suppose I find it hard to understand that people can be so strict with kids playing out and walking to school alone in their last year at infants but all of a sudden it's ok in their first year at senior school.

I'm happy DD will be ok but had nobody to ask IRL as all our friends have jobs that are regular predictable hours so the childcare isn't the issue it is for us.

Hubby and I have talked it through and I'll look to go part time at first and see how it goes. If I went full time, hubby wouldn't have the huge earning potential he has now and we'd actually be a lot worse off! No doubt I'll be staing a lot of threads about how to get back into paid employment after 12 years out.