At what age would you leave children at home?

[Andacherryonthetop]

I have a 9 year old and 6 year old so I know not yet. My issue is I want to exercise more and go running which is difficult with mine and OH work patterns. I was wondering at what age you would leave 2 children with a 3 year age gap to go for a half hour run at 6am when they’re asleep. I was thinking maybe when they’re 12 and 9? I currently leave the 9year old if I nip to the shop for 15 min so I’m thinking when the little one is 9 and her big brother is 12, this might be ok?

Depends on the child.

I've left mine for up to an hour from the age of 9 - quickly building up from 10-15mins at first. I wouldn't leave them sleeping though - better to check that all is well and they have everything they need, plus an ETA for your return before you leave the house

Now she's 11 in year 6 she walks home alone the nights she's not in childcare. In year 7 she will come home to an empty house 3 nights/week. The 15yo is likely to be around for two of those afternoons but not necessarily.

Locally there are pretty much no childcare options for Y7 kids, so IMO if you work outside the home it's worth building up a bit at a time.

DS has been left at home alone for short periods, building to longer periods, since he was about 8 (now 11). I have left DD 7 with him twice - to pop to post box round the corner.

I wouldn't leave DS alone sleeping, even now. I sometimes do have to leave when he's asleep on weekend to take DD to an activity, but I always wake him up and remind him that I am going - he sometimes goes back to sleep and sometimes gets up. I think it will be a while before I'd leave them routinely in the house while still sleeping.

I think secondary. They will be coming home themselves and I have never heard anyone in secondary go to a childminder. Some year 6 will have started doing this too. So 11+ really.

Mine are 15 (16 in 6 weeks time) 13 1/2 and 10, I leave them once a week at 5am for 20 minutes. All 3 are asleep the whole time but are aware if they wake up why I am not there, they all have phones, there is a landline plus we have a ring doorbell so I could see immediately if anyone approached or left the house. I have only started doing this since January so my eldest was over 15 1/2 years old. I wouldn’t leave the 13 and 10 year olds by themselves at that time if my 15 year old was at a sleepover for example.

I leave my 11yo on her own for up to 2 hours. It started accidentally really when she was homeschooling as I had to go out to work & she would stay and do online home schooling. I would take my 7yo with me. However I have left my youngest with my eldest and gone out for about 20mins and they’ve been fine. I’m lucky as my eldest is incredibly sensible. Give my youngest a film and she literally won’t move. I’ve always been local though so can get home quickly. It wasn’t ideal to start but I had no other options and we’ve slowly progressed from there.