s/o when are they old enough to leave home alone?

[todzwife]

Say, for 15-20 minutes?

What about an hour?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Depends on the state.

I would like ds1 to be around 10yo. He is 9 and I don't think he would like being left alone (I think he would be scared).

[Pennylane]

My dd is 10 and she is not comfortable home alone unless I am just walking to a neighbors quickly. I think it depends on the maturity of your child.

Ann

[BeccaB.]

As a child, I was aloud to ride my bike through the neighborhood at 10 years old. My brother was allowed to go with me at 7. My friend with older kids, still doesn't let them out of the house on their own at the same age or older. I think it probably depends a lot on where you live. We live near a busy street so my DCs will probably have to wait a while.

[MelissaTC]

I leave M for 15 minutes or so for a quick trip to the cleaners, CVS, etc.. It is literally a 5 minute car ride. I have actually timed it and have done it in less than 15. He is 9.5. I started doing it when he was almost 9. He knows what to do and likes taking on the responsibility.

ETA - Oops! I misread. We live in a quiet cul-de-sac. He takes off to hang with the kids next door for longer than that. He has been doing that for a year.

[MissyAg94]

Probably around 12-13 yo. Even with a short trip, I would worry about what would happen if I was in an accident, etc. A short trip could turn into a long time home alone and I wouldn't feel comfortable with that at a younger age.

[lalasmama]

It seems like there was a recent thread on this, but I'm too lazy to look it up. It was maybe 1-2 months ago?

It seemed like a lot of families were okay with a QUICK run to the corner store or such around 8 or 9, under ideal conditions. But just as many families weren't comfortable with it.

I think it depends on the child and how mature s/he is. DD's started asking when she can be home alone, and I'm willing to try it in a few more months, when our neighbors are home (we live in a duplex), and I lock the house... for a trip up to the corner store 3 blocks away.

She does great at the gas station when I run in to pay, or waiting in the car when I run into 7-11 to grab a newspaper. She's liking the "this is a thing you can't do until you are x years old", and likes trying to earn the responsibilities/priveledges, so I think she'll do okay at home. Especially because she's a "hall monitor" type, and tends to report every.single.mundane.moment of her day. "And Rosie was wearing a pink barrette. It fell out 7 times on the swings. And she had on a pink shirt too. And my shoe came untied twice. I forgot to double knot it. And I pooped at school. It was little marbles, during art time, I got the girls' bathroom pass, of course. It has 4 grey kittens and 5 black kittens and 2 orange kittens." When I return home, I'm sure she will be able to tell me how many bites of food the cat had, how many drinks of water she took, and any other random thing she notices :)

DD will be 8 in about 5 weeks. (OMG. 8! No way! She can't be that old. She's still my baby!)

[jerseygirl]

Check your state laws. There are some that have actual age limits on when you can legally leave a child home regardless of their maturity level.

Maritess

[Binkandabee]

DD is 8.5 and we've been leaving her at home alone for quick trips since she was about 8 years old. This past week, we left her home alone for a grocery store trip which lasted about an hour and a half.

She was told don't answer the door for anyone and only answer the phone if its us. She was fine...ready for us to come home (she called lol), but fine. She absolutely hates running errands, so it was nice for her to be able to stay and us just get done what needed to be done.

[AnnieW625]

I was probably about 8 or 9 the first time my parents left me at home for a quick trip to the market, but it was pretty rare because they would have taken my brother who was 5 or 6 with them so why not just take me unless he was at the neighbor's house. I really don't remember them doing that though. I remember being left home alone for about an hour was when I was 11/1/2 and my sister who was 18 mos. old at the time was taking a nap while my mom went to Good Friday service at our church 5 minutes away. We lived in a cul de sac so if I needed anything there was always someone home as there were SAHMs available and my brother who was 8 at the time was probably across the street at his friends' house. I was comfortable being home alone at 10 for quick trips to the market, church, or if my mom had to go to an afterschool PTA meeting. At that age I was riding my bike to the corner store with my brother. I was home alone at 12 yrs. old when the Loma Prieta (SF Quake) hit and I did fine as it was just about a 3.0 magnitude quake near us because we were 120 miles north of the epicenter. My mom had gone to pick up my brother at CCD class.

I think with DD1 I'd be comfortable leaving her at home with the door locked and telling her not to answer the phone at 9 or 10 yrs. old for no more than an hour.

[turtle12]

mine is 8 and in principle he really wants to stay home alone for a little bit (esp during short errands), but he's not really ready. we're going to take a few months to talk through different scenarios and practice -- i.e., i'm going to randomly ring the doorbell and i want him to not run up to look out the window, practice him calling me on my cell or pretend-911, walk through the escape routes in the house in the event of a fire, etc...

[dukie41181]

Probably around 12-13 yo. Even with a short trip, I would worry about what would happen if I was in an accident, etc. A short trip could turn into a long time home alone and I wouldn't feel comfortable with that at a younger age.

:yeahthat:

[hillview]

it is hard to guess for me. DS1 is pretty mature but is scared of things still so it will be til he is not scared. If DS1 wanted to walk down to a neighbor's house in a year or so that could be ok. If he wanted to cross the busy street to go to the corner store in a year or 2 that might be ok too. He could stay alone in a year or 2 if he wanted to.

DS2 is just too young to guess at his abilities
/hillary

[lmintzer]

I have only left my 10 year-old 5th grader home alone for 10 minutes (when he was home sick and I needed to take his brother to school).

He is starting to ask when he can stay home alone for short periods, and I am willing to consider it. But I don't really feel comfortable leaving his 8 year-old brother with him. My younger one has food allergies, and I carry and epi-pen for him. Until I am confident that my older one could administer and epi-pen, I really don't feel comfortable leaving them home together. I might recind this for super quick trips out (15-20 mins) when they are not eating, but I haven't done so yet.

Here are some guidelines I found:

http://www.latchkey-kids.com/latchkey-kids-age-limits.htm

[g-mama]

I have been leaving my 11yo at home alone for an hour or so since he was 9. In our area, the minimum age is 8 and for a max of 1.5 hours and only in daylight hours.

He doesn't often choose to if he has the choice, but sometimes he doesn't feel like going where I have to go and opts to stay home.

It really depends on the kid, even after they are the minimum age your area requires. I'm not so sure I'd leave my 8yo home anytime soon, though he would probably want to much more than my oldest ds does. Hmmm...I'm thinking maybe that's tied into the very reasons why I don't trust him to. ;)

[sntm]

DS is very mature. He used to be scared to be left for a moment, but around age 8 it stopped bothering him. I have left him for 60-90 minutes at a time, with strict rules about what he can/cannot do, what to do in an emergency and with me, SO, and his dad/stepmother always contactable.

[erosenst]

DD just turned 8. She's been ready in theory for a couple of months, but when the occasion arises she's not. We would be comfortable leaving her for a quick run to the drugstore/grocery store/etc that are a 5 min drive or less away.

She does walk down to a friend's house/home from the bus alone - but both are at the other end of our cul-de-sac.

[lablover]

Another mature DS here, who is very much a rule follower. Over the past month or so I have left him a couple of times to go to a grocery store that is 5 minutes away, when he really did not want to go. I was only gone about 20 minutes each time. He was instructed to stay in the room he was in (unless emergency), not to answer the door, and to call DH if I wasn't back 45 minutes later.

Right now I can't see leaving DD alone when she is 8 (totally different personality), but we will see.

[KrisM]

I haven't left anyone and driven away yet. I have left both DS1 and DD (alone, not together) for about 10 minutes. They are 7.5 and 5.5. Both times were the same reason - going to the bus stop and the stay-at-home kid is sick. Today, I left DD on the couch and went to meet the bus. I know DS1 could walk home by himself most likely, but we haven't done that yet and there are lots of cars that time of day. So, DS2 and I went and DD stayed home.

As for going to a store and leaving them home, I'm thinking this summer I'll do that with DS1. He's pretty good at listening, especially for things like this.