Leaving kids home alone

[weluvu]

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

i leave my 11 year old but i won't leave him with my 8 year old because they argue and fight.

the 8 year old, NO WAY
thre are loads of things he might do that are dangerous and i wouldn't trust him to do as i had instructed.

Well, maybe I'm unusual, but I was often home alone in the 70s. Can't say I found it scary. In fact, I quite liked it - could choose whatever I wanted to do without being nagged (had -in fact still have - a very naggy mother).
I would imagine it was quite a common experience for anyone over the age of 30. Are children nowadays so different that they cannot be trusted to behave responsibly?

my mum would never have left me and i was a 70's child

you went to a neighbours instead. or rather, a neighbours garden

Yorkshirelass79, that's probably more what I mean. The sort of thing that could happen while I'm at home and I could put right or know what to do, but would be an issue if I wasn't there, and falling down stairs or tripping over something and splitting their head needing medical attention etc comes to mind.

I do know what you mean SM and I'd be happy to chat to my neighbour outside the house for a little while etc while they're playing inside etc. I just wouldn't be content to leave them for an hour, totally unsupervised, while I'm not closeby, or within earshot.

ps - they do understand re medicines

I was left home at 10 to look after siblings for a short time after school once a week but we lived in a square where I could knock on any one of a dozen neighbours doors/call them if I needed an adult!

I'd NEVER leave a sleeping child in the house alone!

Being home alone, especially at night can be scarey...I'm 34 & still hate being home alone!

I've never left my dds home alone either. But last summer, when it was hot, I would put the monitor in the baby's room after the girls had gone to bed, and dh and I would sit in the garden, drinking wine, for an hour or so. So would some of you think that was unacceptable, too? Because they were, after all, sleeping in the house alone.

I'm with Spidermama (and a few others). I think we mollycoddle our kids too much and it is good to teach them responsibility.

However, I am not sure I owuld want an 8 uear old to be responsible for a 6 year old, even if it was a "sensible" 8 year old (who therwsie I ouwld be happy to leave on his/her own).

my own ds is 6, and altohugh I don't leave him alone per se, there are plenty of times when I am out in our (large) garden gardening and he is on the house (with the entrance to our house hidden from the back garden). Technically, he could be doing anything and I wouldn't know.

I was going home from school as a latch key kid (with a younger brother. 1.5 years younger than me) in the 60s when I was c.9 or 10 and it was perfectly normally then. Mum was usually in within an hour of us.

No, not only because they are quite young but also if something happened to me and there was no-one there to take care of them.

I think taking the monitor into the garden to drink wine jolly sensible actually!

I have always done that every summer since having children.

6 is a bit young.

i think from 7 onwards. junior school age. iwouldnt be fussed over an hour

.... but I'm a baaaaad mummy and have never even owned a baby monitor (but have spent many a summer evening out in the garden enjoying the late evening sunshine and maybe even a glass or two of wine, while ds is asleep inside)

My 12 year old niece is left on her own for up to an hour so that my sister can take my nephew places without dragging her along. I think they only started to do that when she was 12 though

Oh yes forgot to mention that our monitor broke about 18 months ago.

I would leave the 8 year old on their own. I would not leave the 8 year old and the 6 year old for more than a few minutes unless I was absolutely certain they would not argue or fight etc.

Many 8 year olds would be fine on their own for a couple of hours (obviously depends on the child)

dh and i sit in the garden all the time while the children are inside asleep

2 things - if some one comes to the door you are aware of it
and
you can see the house

oh one other

a child can come and get you if s/he needs you because you are only in the garden, not at gym class

i think too many people rely on monitors - there is no need for them

over rated

we never had a monitor. May as well sleep wit the child in your room if you're going to be listening to every snuffle. But then we don't lie in a mansion so would always hear any crying

Monitors: I guess it depends how big your house is, I wouldn't hear a baby crying 5 floors up!!!

you have 5 floors Do you live in a Highland castle

Ha!...I wish!...No I work in a London town house!

I agree with prettybird. We do mollycoddle kids too much. But there's a big difference between being in the garden or next door and being at a gym class where you presumably don't have a phone on you. My little sister and I were often left alone a lot when we were kids because our elder sister who was supposed to looking after us used to go out. We were about 10/11 ish.
Someone tried to break in once and we hid behind the door with a huge knife as we thought that was the most sensible thing to do - to stab him.
Fortunately it was a mate of my sister's on a wind up and he called out before he came out of the room he'd climbed into but if he'd just opened the door, I dread to think what would have happened

We can't see the door or the driveway to our house when we are in our garden .

But we can see if anyone goes up the stairs into our house! That is, if we happen to be looking that way!

I think everyone makes a judgement about what level of risk we are prepared to tolerate for both ourselves and for our children - and the fact that they are different is perfectly OK. Dh's and my tolerance level is quite high is perhaps a reflection of our 60s upbringing

But haivng said that, I am not sure that I owuld leave that age group to go as far away as a gym class - 'cos it owuldn't just be an hour, it wouod be the getting there and back, plus uyou're not really contactable. I also depends on whether you have easily accessible neighbours.

No, I most certainly would not leave a 6 year old and I think 8 is too young as well. It does depend on the child but I think that around 10 is the youngest that I would leave a child alone.

Lordy, I'd be too scared to mention things that my folks did in the '70's here! Like drinking and driving us all home late at night. Leaving us in the car with a packet of crisps and a bottle of coke in the pub car park ....