what age do you leave your kids at home/let them go out on their own?

[4mum]

with my 2 older kids its been 12,
distance/time increasing as we all get more confident with it.
how do you feel?

From the time they went to secondary school - though with DS1 we did a few trial runs in town first (i.e. I or another mum went into town separately from them).

start of secondary school is what i have heard most parents do.
however, ds, aged ten, is allowed to go to the corner shop for sweets, and has walked home a few times alone. dh at home to recieve him. from september,year six, i will be sending him to and from school on hi s own. i will follow withthe younger dc, either by car, or bike, depending.
i've left him alone for up to fifteenminutes at home. wiht one excception, bu lets not talk about htat)

Mine are all too young I think, oldest is just 8. Most families around here start to let them walk to school with friends in years 5/6 often with Mum turning up at school with younger sibling to check that the older one arrived safely.

However, many people will pop to the local shop to buy a pint of milk leaving younger ones for say 15 mins. I'm not sure if I'm ok with this or not.

have left my youngesr(8)
home with eldest(15)
for a short while,wouldent for longer as i cant trust
the older not to lose his temper with youngest-who is a
bit wild!!!!!

4mum - I think that's fine, my oldest (8) thinks that I should leave her at home while I collect her sister from a school club and says her friends mums do the same. It's a 15 min round trip - I'm not sure if I should.

I let my ds(9) go round the block on his bike. I would like to leave him at home for a short while occasionally while I nipped out, but I haven't as I am unsure of the law. I think he'd be fine for 10/15 mins and would enjoy the responsibility.