At What Age...

[L From The D]

When were you/will you be comfortable leaving your child(ren) home alone for a short period of time? (i.e. - going to pick up a pizza, quick grocery trip for 1-2 items)

[dizzycooks]

We aren't there yet, but I'm guessing around 8. Our pizza pick up is 5 minutes away and there's a drugstore on the corner. Anything more than that I'd probably make them come with.

[lala]

I would probably let my 8.5 stay for up to 15 min or so if we had a land line or extra cell. At some point we'll get one w/ a cheapo plan to use for these purposes.

[hocus2]

8 or 9 for a truly quick errand. 9 or 10 for going to target which is at least an hour. That assumes we're talking about one kid. I think I wouldn't leave the kids alone together until my younger one was 10 or so.

[cjcouple]

My oldest will be 11 in Sept and I have offered to let him stay home when I go pick up DS2. School is 3 min drive away, so its usally 20 mins from door to door. But he says no. He is not cpmfortavle yet so once he feels ready I will start with small trips.

[momin2013]

I think maybe a responsible 10; we'll see when we get there how "responsible" I feel he is at that age...

[sacattack]

I leave DS (9.5) and DD (8) alone now. I would say I just started doing this maybe 3 months ago.

I started out small with just 15 minutes to see how they did and how comfortable they were. Now I leave them in the morning for an hour while I go to the gym and DH is out running in the neighborhood.

They are totally comfortable with it, know the rules and actually behave better than when I'm there. We also have a landline, the ability to facetime and neighbors we know.

While I am totally comfortable this and feel OK with my choice - I think technically the state law is 12 - which I think is total BS.

[nicolewi]

If I only had my oldest, I would be okay leaving her for a quick errand. She's 8. She'd have the phone (we have a home phone), locked doors, and strict instructions obviously not to make or eat food. She would just stay in and I'd probably put a show on for her.

BUT, since I have other littles, it's going to be a while longer before I can think about leaving anyone here alone.

Fun note on changing times: in "Ramona and her Mother," when Ramona's mother has something come up, kindergartener Ramona is left home alone to watch the clock until a certain time, leave the house on her own, and walk to kindergarten. Walking to school involved crossing a street or two before coming to the crossing guards.

[mamaalysson]

My friends with 4th graders have started this year...that seems about right to me.

[ohyouknow]

My 10 year old daughter walks home from school and is home alone for about 1.5-2 hours. She has the Youth Center available to her about a block from us where she usually stops to get a snack and see if any of her friends are there. We live on a military base and know all our neighbors quite well (all but me are SAHMs), as in I vacation with the other wives a couple times a year and let them see my house when it's messy. Anytime something has "gone wrong" my daughter goes next door and one of the moms helps her. Last week she couldn't get the garage code to work. One of the other mom helped her search for the hidden key then invited her inside her house until I drove home from work. She also could have gone back to the Youth Center.
I leave my 7.5 yr old and 10 yr old home alone in the morning for about 5 minutes while I drop off the 4 year old down the hill. Usually when I get back they are still standing outside on our step waiting for the other neighbor kids to group up and they all walk to school together.
The longest i'd leave the two older ones home alone together is about 10-15 min. Never with the 4 year old.

[penguingrrl]

I've been leaving Julia for things like that since she was 8 or 8.5. We got her a cell phone so she can reach us or 911 as needed. Emma will be 8 this summer and I brought this option up and she's terrified at the thought, so I suspect it will be a while before I leave her.

In the fall I'll be leaving Julia for a little while daily. She'll have turned 10 days before She's starting middle school and the middle school is directly across the street from our house. It starts a few minutes later than the elementary school, so she'll be alone daily while I drive/bike her sister to school.

[penguingrrl]

Oh, and I wish Emma was okay with it. H walks a mile to take the train and doesn't own a car. There are mornings the weather is awful and H walks before the girls are up. Drew is usually up, so I would gladly leave the girls asleep in the house to quickly drive H, but Emma's too scared so I don't do it (I would never ever force it on her).

[abs]

With DD's personality she probably won't be okay with it for awhile. I think by 8 or 9 I'd be fine with it but since she doesn't like even playing upstairs by herself I think we are years away from her wanting to stay home!

[imojoebunny]

I leave my 8 and 11 year old for quick trips to the store, 4 blocks away, or walk the dog around the block, but only if I am sure one of my neighbors is home (One stay at home mom with a baby and another works from home, so one is usually around). I started with my oldest around 9, but just started leaving the younger. They have a gizmo phone, if they need to call me, and I can track them, if they are out. This year I started to leave the older one for up to about 30 minutes, if she is out of school, and her brother is in school, to go get him. She, also, walks to the market for ice cream with a friend or to a garden where a lot of same age local kids go, a couple of blocks away.

The 8 year old is dying to be old enough to ride his bike to school by himself, which starts around 9 here (there are crossing guards at all busy intersections between here and there, and it is a less than 10 minute walk). The older one wants to walk, but goes to private school and has no one to walk with, so I drop her 2 blocks away, and she crosses with the crossing guard.

[expectantsteelerfan]

My oldest is almost 8, and dh and I talked about next year leaving both him and dd (so ds will be 9, dd will be almost 7) home alone while I walk the dog/go for runs in our neighborhood (we had to discuss this already because once we can do that, I plan to quit the gym I go to, which is also our pool, so we joined the wait list for a different pool that we'd prefer to go to). We also plan to get a home phone line at that point if we aren't ready to get ds a cell phone (which I REALLY don't imagine we will be). And based on how they do with me still being in the neighborhood, we'd move forward with leaving ds home alone from there.

[melew]

My oldest is just about 9.5 and I think she is getting to that point. She starts 4th grade in the fall.

[Deleted]

i feel like i could leave my almost 6 year olds and they'd be fine for a few minutes. i haven't and i won't yet...but i could see 9 or 10 they'd be just fine. One of my little guys is a huge daredevil and will probably need supervision until he's 35 haha.

[scorpio72]

First child 10
Second child 8
Third child 6 briefly

[court26]

I always think around 10, however, we won't be able to leave DS probably ever. He has severe food allergies, some environmental allergies and allergy-induced asthma. While he never eats foods he can't have, there are too many "what ifs". I think when DD is old enough to "take care of him". LOL. I don't even know what that means? 15 and 16? Aside from allergy/asthma stuff, DS is totally on his own routine (likes lunch at 12, snack at 3, etc.) and might not even notice if I left . I was babysitting at 11, so I always look at DD and wonder if she will be responsible enough by then!

[gastro]

I think whenever the ages come I wouldn't be able to leave both kids at the same time. They would come up with something that would probably break something or injure themselves. I think one at a time around 10 years old?

[happymum]

Jun 6, 2017 14:18:01 GMT -5 L From The D said:

When were you/will you be comfortable leaving your child(ren) home alone for a short period of time? (i.e. - going to pick up a pizza, quick grocery trip for 1-2 items)

I did this the other month. my eldest is 5 and my youngest is three. I had to go to their school to attend a meeting for an hour. If I bring them with me, i'll end up looking after them instead of actually attending the meeting. So I put the youngest to sleep before I left. I let my 5yo watch all her favorite movies. I instructed her as well that when baby wakes up, she will have to hand him his feeding bottle and give him his snacks afterwards. Everything went fine, when I arrived home, they were playing and both enjoying. Can't say I'd be doing it again anytime soon though. When I was at the meeting, I was thinking of 'when will this meeting ever end'. lol. it takes a lot of guts really. 


edit: school is 5mins walk from home.hehe!

[cjcouple]

Jul 31, 2017 9:02:59 GMT -5 happymum said:

Jun 6, 2017 14:18:01 GMT -5 L From The D said:

When were you/will you be comfortable leaving your child(ren) home alone for a short period of time? (i.e. - going to pick up a pizza, quick grocery trip for 1-2 items)

I did this the other month. my eldest is 5 and my youngest is three. I had to go to their school to attend a meeting for an hour. If I bring them with me, i'll end up looking after them instead of actually attending the meeting. So I put the youngest to sleep before I left. I let my 5yo watch all her favorite movies. I instructed her as well that when baby wakes up, she will have to hand him his feeding bottle and give him his snacks afterwards. Everything went fine, when I arrived home, they were playing and both enjoying. Can't say I'd be doing it again anytime soon though. When I was at the meeting, I was thinking of 'when will this meeting ever end'. lol. it takes a lot of guts really. 


edit: school is 5mins walk from home.hehe!

Is this MUD?  I'm biting anyway, please do NOT leave our 3 and 5yo home alone.  Are you effing crazy??  A 5yo is not responsible enough to be alone, and definitely not to babysit a 3yo.  You are lucky you were not reported, they take kids away for that!! That is child endangerment!

Some people are so brain dead. 

((SMH))

[momin2013]

Jul 31, 2017 9:02:59 GMT -5 happymum said:

Jun 6, 2017 14:18:01 GMT -5 L From The D said:

When were you/will you be comfortable leaving your child(ren) home alone for a short period of time? (i.e. - going to pick up a pizza, quick grocery trip for 1-2 items)

I did this the other month. my eldest is 5 and my youngest is three. I had to go to their school to attend a meeting for an hour. If I bring them with me, i'll end up looking after them instead of actually attending the meeting. So I put the youngest to sleep before I left. I let my 5yo watch all her favorite movies. I instructed her as well that when baby wakes up, she will have to hand him his feeding bottle and give him his snacks afterwards. Everything went fine, when I arrived home, they were playing and both enjoying. Can't say I'd be doing it again anytime soon though. When I was at the meeting, I was thinking of 'when will this meeting ever end'. lol. it takes a lot of guts really. 


edit: school is 5mins walk from home.hehe!

Um, nope. This would be illegal where I am and I'm sure it would be where you are too.

[lala]

Jul 31, 2017 9:54:12 GMT -5 momin2013 said:

Jul 31, 2017 9:02:59 GMT -5 happymum said:

I did this the other month. my eldest is 5 and my youngest is three. I had to go to their school to attend a meeting for an hour. If I bring them with me, i'll end up looking after them instead of actually attending the meeting. So I put the youngest to sleep before I left. I let my 5yo watch all her favorite movies. I instructed her as well that when baby wakes up, she will have to hand him his feeding bottle and give him his snacks afterwards. Everything went fine, when I arrived home, they were playing and both enjoying. Can't say I'd be doing it again anytime soon though. When I was at the meeting, I was thinking of 'when will this meeting ever end'. lol. it takes a lot of guts really. 


edit: school is 5mins walk from home.hehe!

Um, nope. This would be illegal where I am and I'm sure it would be where you are too.

This has to be mud. That was entirely negligent happymum,

[lexus]

Jul 31, 2017 11:19:43 GMT -5 lala said:

Jul 31, 2017 9:54:12 GMT -5 momin2013 said:

Um, nope. This would be illegal where I am and I'm sure it would be where you are too.

This has to be mud. That was entirely negligent happymum,

I looked at this person's posts. All posts were in the last couple of days and most were older posts (on this board or others). Very odd.

[expectantsteelerfan]

Yep, I was worried my response of hoping to leave my 9 and almost 7 year old alone while I am still in the neighborhood next year would be on the early end, but I think that while there is room for debate about the exact appropriate age, we can agree that 5 and 3 are too young for sure!

[erbear]

Jul 31, 2017 9:02:59 GMT -5 happymum said:

Jun 6, 2017 14:18:01 GMT -5 L From The D said:

When were you/will you be comfortable leaving your child(ren) home alone for a short period of time? (i.e. - going to pick up a pizza, quick grocery trip for 1-2 items)

I did this the other month. my eldest is 5 and my youngest is three. I had to go to their school to attend a meeting for an hour. If I bring them with me, i'll end up looking after them instead of actually attending the meeting. So I put the youngest to sleep before I left. I let my 5yo watch all her favorite movies. I instructed her as well that when baby wakes up, she will have to hand him his feeding bottle and give him his snacks afterwards. Everything went fine, when I arrived home, they were playing and both enjoying. Can't say I'd be doing it again anytime soon though. When I was at the meeting, I was thinking of 'when will this meeting ever end'. lol. it takes a lot of guts really. 


edit: school is 5mins walk from home.hehe!

This is a joke, right? it's not funny.

[Deleted]

Jul 31, 2017 9:02:59 GMT -5 happymum said:

Jun 6, 2017 14:18:01 GMT -5 L From The D said:

When were you/will you be comfortable leaving your child(ren) home alone for a short period of time? (i.e. - going to pick up a pizza, quick grocery trip for 1-2 items)

I did this the other month. my eldest is 5 and my youngest is three. I had to go to their school to attend a meeting for an hour. If I bring them with me, i'll end up looking after them instead of actually attending the meeting. So I put the youngest to sleep before I left. I let my 5yo watch all her favorite movies. I instructed her as well that when baby wakes up, she will have to hand him his feeding bottle and give him his snacks afterwards. Everything went fine, when I arrived home, they were playing and both enjoying. Can't say I'd be doing it again anytime soon though. When I was at the meeting, I was thinking of 'when will this meeting ever end'. lol. it takes a lot of guts really. 


edit: school is 5mins walk from home.hehe!

media.giphy.com/media/Fml0fgAxVx1eM/giphy.gif

[dragon's breath]

Not legal where I am until age 12, and I wasn't willing to risk getting caught. I would have been willing to leave him around age 8 for a quick run. It really sucked as a single mom. The moment he turned 12 he was home alone, even when I was working (45 minutes away, gone for 12 hours).

ETA: on the days I was home when he was in school, he was able to walk home by himself (about four blocks, but only had to cross one street).  I'd say he was doing that around age 7 or 8.