Leaving kids home alone

[weluvu]

Would you leave 2 children aged 8 and 6 home alone for one hour once a week?

No - it's illegal

not me, depends on the time of day/

NO WAY

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it is not illegal though.

And even if it were legal I still wouldn't.

I wouldn't, but it isn't illegal. No age limit to when a child can be left, but you take responsibility if they are 'at risk' and can be prosecuted - you have to make your own judgement.

no, but my neighbour does. Not regularly, but often enough. They have rules on answering the phone and door, and on electrical things, but IMO the kids are too young.

I'm not sure what the right age is, though?

I thought it was age 13 Bandstand - is it really not illegal

It depends on the kids. Frankly I think that the majority of eight year olds should and would be absolutely fine on their own. Is it really illegal?
Utter madness.

There is no specific age where it becomes legal to leave children unattended, but I would never leave children of this age alone for that amount of time.

In fact I think it would be really good for them.

I don't understand the heightened perception of fear which pervades our society and has people terrified of leaving children on their own, in their home, for an hour. OK if they were arsonists or escapologists but well behaved well balanced kids should be fine.

have only just found out yesterday on here that it is not illegal. i thought before it was 13, but then i aso thought chilkdren couldnt go in the front seat of the car til they were 12 or something but that was a load of waffle too.

For people saying 'No Way!' can I ask why not? What is it you're expecting/fearing might happen?

Absolutely not. Despite it being illegal, you just could not trust them to be alone in the house at this age. You wouldn't know what they would get up to in your absence and anything could happen really. No - not safe. You'd never forgive yourself if something serious did happen and that's without the trouble you'd be in for leaving them alone in the first place.

why do you want to know wlevu

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Mine are still tiny ATM but I hope when they're older I'll still agree with Spidermama.
Obviously it will depend on their being the right kind of kids, and obviously it will depend on there being a support network (eg neighbour they can go to) but I agree that it would be good for them.
An hour is easily long enough to get into mischief if that's what the child wants to do, but OTOH the odds of something terrible happening to the child during that time (burglarly, fire, etc) are absolutely tiny.

agree yorkshire lass, my ds, 12 hates being in charge of his siblings, thy dnt listen to him. he says.. too much resonsbility

Spidermama - I don't trust my 8yo not to try to make himself a slice of toast etc, or try to poke it out with a knife if it doesn't pop up. Yes, he is sensible, and might well play safely for an hour, but he wouldn't always think of potential consequences/dangers of things which would seem fairly innocuous. (That's just an example btw, there are just things they do at that age to explore, but could end up putting them in danger iyswim).

I wouldn't leave a child that age alone even if they were well behaved. I wouldn't feel confident that they could deal with unexpected incidents. also, no matter how well behaved a child I don't think they can ever be trusted not to do/touch stuff you've told tehm not to. (Thinking back to my own childhood there).

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Reason I asked was because a friend has asked me to join an aerobic class with her, it's on a monday night 6:30 until 7:30...I have nobody to look after the kids (single parent) so said I couldn't go, she looked confused and said "surely they'll be ok for an hour on their own??". She leaves hers regulary but I feel they're a bit young, the 6 year old especially...in fact I think I would leave my 8 year old if it was just him as he is very sensible but I just wondered what everyone else thought.

Aero I've stood over my 6 year old and explained to him about the toaster, how to use it and why not to stick metal down it.

My dh has let our kids (6, 8 and 5) loose with his tool kit. They had wood, nails, hammers and saws and they made the most delightful kids playground with benches and signs for the garden.

I think our chuildren respond to our views on them and if we treat them like dangerous, and untrustworthy loose cannons, they'll believe the hype.

There's a good book on this subject called The Continuum Concept.

shame, can you go int he day?