Children at home alone, what age

[middleagedandinarage]

I know this gets asked a lot but at what age would you leave your child at home alone? After school, we live rural so kids get the bus to school. Grandparents 5 minutes walk away. Children currently go to after school club on days I work but wondering what age would people consider for them to get off the bus at home and stay home alone until I get back from work. It would be for an hour to an hour and a half.

Hmm, for that amount of time I'd say first year of high school

My twin boys are 10 and final year of primary, we leave them for 15-30 minutes if we need to, they have access to a phone and if we are nearer the 30 minutes we often drop in on Alexa to be sure they are ok.
to let themselves in and then be 1 hour I would want them to be at least another year older I think.

Mine weren't alone after school until year 7. We are a 5 min walk from their primary and the youngest turned 11 at start of year 6.
I still preferred for him to go to after school club as I know he would have just watched TV or played computer games at home so socialised more at after school club.
If money was an issue I would have felt safe to take him out sooner.

Depends on the child. There is no minimum age of leaving your child home alone provided it doesn’t leave them at risk. The NSPCC recommends no younger than 12 but I think that’s far too old. DSD was 7 when she started walking to school with her friends and 8 when she first started to get paid for evening babysitting.

Age 10 for a sensible child

We did that at about 8-9 to be honest. But my older 2 are twins so had each other which made me feel more comfortable. Then for my younger children, we just kept it the same.

and 8 when she first started to get paid for evening babysitting.

Who on earth was paying an 8 year old to babysit??

8 when she first started to get paid for evening babysitting.

Whaaaaat?!

Thanks everyone, just wondered what everyone's generally feeling was

For that length of time, I’d say year 6 obviously depending on the child.

That's nuts.

How far away are you? We left our lad from about 9 but only when we were out on a local walk. If he'd rung us we'd have been home in 10 mins tops, probably less.

It depends on the child, my oldest could have been left for a bit at aged 10 or 11 but my second is nearly 11 and I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving her yet, you have to use your own judgement with your child you know them best

Ds is 13 and I started to leave him to pop to Tesco / down the road to collect a prescription (walking distance) from about 11/12, so maybe leaving him for an hour at most. He’s fairly sensible but I don’t feel comfortable going too far away at the moment or for too long. He does have a phone and can ring me etc etc. dd now aged 21 was about the same sort of age when I started leaving her home alone.

If you are leaving your dd home alone make sure they know how to turn the water off if there’s an emergency- I know that sounds weirdly specific but when I was 11 my Mum left me at home for a bit and there was a leak upstairs (radiator) and the whole downstairs ceiling collapsed. I had no idea what to do or how to turn the water off at the mains. It was scary and caused so much more damage than it could have done as I literally had to sit there with the water pouring in until my Mum got back!

12 year old I leave for a couple of hours and don't mind being a drive away. 10 year old I'll leave for maybe 30 mins, but only if close. Biggest problem is leaving them together. Would do that for 10 mins tops.

If the grandparents are 5 mins away then if they are in and happy to go round if anything happens then I think 10 is fine. Quick call to grandparents when they get in.

We’ve recently started leaving DS9 when I pop out to do the nursery run, so less than half an hour. DS6 wants to stay but I drag him out with me. They’ve both been to the corner shop together but I didn’t feel good about 6 yo going. DS9 loves it!

Friend’s 9yo walks home from school with another child’s parent and is then home alone until parents get home from work 45 mins later. Can text through the Alexa and he just snacks and games so no problem.

Left eldest for the odd 20-30mins from 10.5 onwards, now at almost 12 left up to 2 hours absolute max and rarely as we both get a little twitchy at that length of time.

2nd child is 8, no thoughts whatsoever about leaving the 2 of them in the house together, although do let them go to the shop together round the corner on occasion.

Mine were in Yr6 when they were home 5-7.30 once a week when I was working nearby. Prior to that I took them with me.

It started with her aunt and then family friends. Basically to stay at home for an hour or two while baby was sleeping.

And if the baby woke up?

8 is very young to be caring for anyone even for an hour or two!

12

I have only just started leaving my son for short periods such as going to the local shop. However he's autistic with combined type ADHD so he will make sudden irrational decisions that are often not safe. We have to start somewhere though and build from there. Conversely, I was able to leave my eldest child for an hour or so from 11/12. She was an extremely sensible child and I trusted her completely.

WTF? 😳

I think it depends on the child.
Dd1 and 2 it was yr6/secondary schoolish for short times, building up as time went on. Ds is 14 and still couldn't be left alone as he has special needs.
8 is way too young to be responsible for a baby, whilst babysitting!
...and when you say walking from school with friends at 7, we're the friends 7 too??