No legal age limit - how old to leave children home alone?

[amcal]

If your state had no legal minimum age at which a child can be home alone, at what age would you start allowing you children to stay home alone for short periods of time?

I'm talking about children who are responsible, have demonstrated their able to clearly understand and follow rules for answering phones, opening doors, know how to reach you etc...

I'm talking about a quick run to the neighborhood grocery store or some such. No more than 30 min or so. At what age would you start allowing short stays at home?

[Teensy]

Around 10 or so, under the conditions you've outlined.

[CarrieMF]

I've done it with my kids when they were 9.

[2xy]

My oldest was 8 when he started seriously balking at going on errands. DS2 is a mama's boy and always liked tagging along, so he stayed home by himself at a later age.

I'm not very fearful of leaving kids alone for a little while, but I was a latchkey kid so maybe that's why. I'm almost 40, and remember when kids were allowed to play outside alone, roam the neighborhood, etc. Children are more capable than modern society seems to think.

[eclipse]

My oldest is nine and I occaisionaly leave him home for short trips. I don't do it as often as he would like, but that's mostly because we live in Mexico and most of the trips he'd rather stay home for are ones across the border to San Diego. Even for a short trip, I don't feel comfortable being across an international border from him. I would leave my 7 yo home with him for the short trips, but she never wants to stay.

[amcal]

My kids are 7 & 8.5 and they're starting to balk at having to run minor errands. I'm not ready to leave them yet. But, for example, tonight they were engrossed in a craft and I needed to run over to my mom's house 1 mile away. I would have been gone 10 minutes and they really wanted to stay at home and finish their craft. I didn't leave them but, for the first time, I gave it a minutes consideration.

I know they'd be fine. Heck, when I leave them on occasion with their 18 yo step brother, he spends all the time I'm gone in his room so they basically take care of themselves, call me if they have a question or need anything and just hang out reading or watching a show until I get back.

[LynnS6]

9 or 10.

I have actually told ds (9) this summer that he could stay home while we ran errands. He doesn't like to be alone, so as far as I can tell, he'll be about 35 before he stays home alone!

[buttercup784ever]

My daughter was 10 and my son was 6 when I started leaving them to walk around the block. I always brought my cell phone, and each trip around was maybe 10 minutes.

They are now 12 and 8, and I feel pretty comfortable with leaving them for about an hour if I'll be within a 10 min. drive. If I'm going across town or will be gone longer I would feel comfortable leaving them longer if my neighbors were home.

[earthmama369]

I was about 7 when my mom started leaving me home alone for short periods of time, if I recall correctly. Knowing my daughter, if there were no legal risks, I'd be comfortable leaving her alone for about 30 minutes when she hits 7. Not so sure about my son yet.

[camracrazy]

Our state doesn't have any laws about what age a child can be left alone. I was surprised when I read an article in the local news that said if a child under 16 is reported as being left home alone, the local police take it "very seriously". I guess my parents (and grandparents) would have been in all kinds of trouble.

[luvmybaby333]

My daughter is 7½. I don't know when I'd feel comfortable leaving her at home alone, but I can tell you that it's not anytime in the near future. My mom left me at home alone occasionally at that age. It scared me. I won't do that to her. (Plus, she's not as emotionally mature as I was at her age... I just don't think she'll be ready for a long while.)

[CherryBomb]

Indiana doesn't have a law about minimum age to be left alone. Dd1 is 9 and I would probably be okay leaving her for a short time around age 10. Particularly if my friend (who lives right across the street) is home. Actually I end up leaving her and dd3 for about 5 minutes in the morning while I walk dd2 to school (we literally live right next to the school, it takes about 1 minute to walk to it). Dh works third shift and doesn't quite get home before I need to take dd2 to school. He's usually home before I get back from dropping her off.

[meemee]

probably now. my dd is almost 8. i leave her because i have a room mate who stays in his room and sometimes doesnt even know i am gone.

but starting at 6 i have left dd alone for 15 or 20 mins after letting our next door neighbour know. i did it maybe a handful of times in a year but i still did it. i always came back to find dd was exactly where i had left her forgotten that i had gone even though i had told her and asked her to check in with neighbour if scared. the first time i did it was because of a deadline thing and did DIDNOT want to go. absolutely not. so i thought i would try it for experiment and see what happens and it was ok. however dd is precocious and extremely independent.

[Aquitane]

DS is almost 12. He's been staying by himself for short periods for a couple of years. Once in a while I let DD (7) stay with him. 15-20 minutes tops for them to be together.

Over the course of this summer I have added more time he can stay alone. I'm comfortable with about 2 hours max with him alone now. I've also increased the time he and DD can be alone together to about 1.5 hours.

I started babysitting at 12, so I figure it's okay. The only thing I worry about is the two of them bickering/fighting while I'm gone. That hasn't really happened. I think they only fight in front of me!

[velochic]

I'd say at whatever age both you AND THEY are O.K. with being left alone and knowing that they can handle an emergency in a responsible manner... including the emergency that you might not come home (car accident en route, for example). If your child is old enough to realize, "Hey, mom said she'd be home in 20 minutes, and it's been an hour, I need to call her/call the place she went/call the police/call someone else" then they are probably old enough to be left alone. If there is a fire, and they know what to do, someone breaks in and they know what to do, someone gets hurt and they know what to do... they're probably old enough.

So, IMHO, it's not when they can handle the best-case scenario, but when they can handle the worst-case scenario.

Dd is 8.5 and she simply does not want that responsibility yet (and she is very independent and responsible... in fact responsible enough to know what she can and cannot handle).

ETA: If I had to look into my crystal ball and make a prediction, I'd say it will be about 11 or 12 for even the "short run to the store" situation, but of course everyone's MMV.

[Youngfrankenstein]

My oldest kids are 10 and 9 and I have left them a few times to go grocery shopping for about an hour. I'm not too concerned safety-wise but frankly I let them play on 2 different computers while I'm gone to stave off boredom which translates to "making trouble".

[cappuccinosmom]

Hmm, I might let my oldest stay home for 10-20 minutes while I ran downtown to get something from the drug store, maybe when he's 9-10. But I don't know what our states age requirements are.

For longer periods of time, and for me going a further distance away, it would be more like 15+ yo.

[meemee]

Originally Posted by velochic

So, IMHO, it's not when they can handle the best-case scenario, but when they can handle the worst-case scenario.

good point. good point. yeah exactly. being a single mom i was a little freaked out if something happened to me while i was at home. by the time dd was 4 she knew phone numbers, how to call 911, to go to neighbours (on both sides of us who had the phone numbers list too), had her own children's preprogrammed cell phone and what to do in case of fire and which tree to stand under and call her dad.

[MJB]

My oldest is 7.5 and I would feel totally comfortable leaving him home alone for a couple hours during the day, if I wasn't worried about the legal consequences. Probably at 8-9. My little sister and I stayed home alone for 2 hours a day when we were 7 and 5.

[AFWife]

Originally Posted by earthmama369

I was about 7 when my mom started leaving me home alone for short periods of time, if I recall correctly. Knowing my daughter, if there were no legal risks, I'd be comfortable leaving her alone for about 30 minutes when she hits 7. Not so sure about my son yet.

Originally Posted by camracrazy

Our state doesn't have any laws about what age a child can be left alone. I was surprised when I read an article in the local news that said if a child under 16 is reported as being left home alone, the local police take it "very seriously". I guess my parents (and grandparents) would have been in all kinds of trouble.

These! My brother and I were left in our own care a lot as kids. My parents worked nights and couldn't always afford a babysitter. Honestly, you do what you have to do.

I remember a guy coming to my class in 2nd or 3rd grade and talking about being left home alone. Most of us had been left alone at that point. He went over safety (not answering the door/phone, what do it in an emergency, how to recognize an emergency, etc...) Looking back I think, "Wow, times have changed" and that was only the early 90s.


My parents always outlined the do's and don'ts before leaving. We didn't have caller ID or an answering machine (it was a vmail service) so they even had a calling pattern so we'd know it was okay to answer the phone AND a secret knock incase they needed one of us to open the door. They even went over basic first aid with me (pressure to stop bleeding, don't move someone that is "sleeping" after a fall...) and we had activities planned out. (We'll watch the movies in THIS order and play the games in THAT order)