At what age do you think it is appropriate to start leaving children home alone?

I would say if it is just one child and they are responsible then age 10 or 11 would probably be pretty good. If the child had younger siblings that would be there also then I would say older. My mom started leaving me and my sister home for a little bit when we were probably 11 and 8. It would just be from after school till she got home around 5. My kids are 6, 3 and 1 right now. When my daughter is around 10 or so I'll start watching to see if I think she can handle being alone for a little while and see if she could handle it with her brother and sister being there too. Just for a little while though, not all day where making meals would be required.

Well, I dont know about where you live, but in Ireland it is against the law to leave a child under the age of 16 yrs at home alone. It would be classed as child neglect. :-)

Well here in Canada if your child take the "safe at home" course they can be at home legally at age 10 and 11, otherwise it is at age 12...and of course your comfort level with the child's maturity.

It all depends on the child really. I was left alone at 13, although I could have been alone earlier if I didnt hate being alone all day. Depends on maturity level, at 12 I could cook and do wahtever needed to myself, while others cant.

Personally I say no younger than 14. I know that may seem kind of old but I think in the day and age that we live in, with all of the random violence going on around us, we need to be a little more protective of those we are responsible for. Maybe it also depends on the child. If the 14 year old is prone to starting things or creating trouble then they aren't old enough or mature enough to be left at home. Perhaps your 12 year old is 12 going on 30? But I really think anything under 12 is too young no matter how mature the child is.

Hello, I believe it depends on the state which you live in. 16 years of age is the limit for baby sitting in my state but I'm sure not everyone follows it.

I agree it depends on the maturity level of the child. And I feel the younger they are, the shorter the duration of being left alone. I do not leave my 2 year old with his 8 year old brother at home alone...unless it is to pop next door to borrow something from a neighbour and it doesn't take more than a few minutes. But I've left my older one at home for a few hours at a time alone because I know he can manage. It started with half an hour and then slowly moved up to a couple of hours. A few days back, we had to go out for something and my son had a science club around 3 hours later. There was no way we could have gone where we needed to go and got back in time to drop him at home so that a neighbour could drop him along with her son to the club. So, we left him home and he got ready on time and locked the door and handed the keys to our neighbour and left for the science club. He is pretty much responsible that way but I can't trust him with the little one even for half an hour (and I don't think I would leave the 2 year old with him even if he was responsible in handling him...I think 2 is way too young to be left without adult supervision though I know someone who does it).

Well, I'm a little bit rusty on this, but I had to do quite a bit of research on it when I got divorced. I couldn't afford childcare so I had to find out when I was legally allwed to leave them by themselves. Now, it varies by jurisdiction and can be different from county to county within a state. But for our area, I think it was something like this: A child could be left alone, unattended for any lenght of time with adequate food and shelter once they were 8 years old. A child could stay alone with a younger sibling (under the same conditions as above) under the age of 8 if the older child was 10 or 11 I think. A child can stay alone with a non-related child of any age (same conditions) if they were 13 and had taken the baby-sitting course. I was leaving my 8 year old alone for an hour after school until his older brother (10 years old) got home. This was over 15 years ago and has probably changed...

I would say 12 or 13. I think I was around that age when my mom started leaving me at home alone. I think most kids are mature enough to stay home alone at that age. I know some kids are not though. I really don't know if there is a law about leaving them home at a certain age or not.

i believe my children were aging five years old and three years old when i started to leave them at home. of course, i have already cooked food for them. they will just have to look for the food in the refrigerator and the cold drinks, too. rice and viands are all arranged on the dining table. my children were doing fine even if they were of those ages when i started leaving them at home all to themselves. i have requested some neighbors to take a look time and again at what they are doing. kids are kids and some people who might have noticed that there is no adult around, they could take advantage of the situation.

I think that kids should not be left alone in the house until they reach the age of 14. By this time, kids are more responsible and they are less likely to do some real damage to themselves and the house. I don't like the idea of leaving 8-10 year old kids alone at home. Kids at this age are usually less attentive to details and that can be quite dangerous.

I think at least teenage but more importantly not until the parents are sure they know the child can handle different situations. When my Niece decided to start babysitting, I sat down with her and gave her different scenerios to see how she would handle them. If she didn't know the proper thing to do, I told her. I feel a lot better about her babysitting now. [b]~~AT PEACE WITHIN~~ **STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS**[/b]

i would say at least in the mid teens.i know here it's illegal to leave a child less than 13 alone.

I would guess that a reasonably well behaved ten year old COULD be okay at home alone. To be safe one might wait untill twelve, but certainly by then the concepts of what is and is not dangerous ought to be well understood. My brother was five years older than me, so there were not many occasions for me to be alone at a young age.

Here, the law is that kids 12 and up can be left home alone. Teens 13 and up can babysit. Or it could be that 11 and up can be left home alone, 12 can look after their own siblings, and 13 can babysit other people's kids. I mix this up occasionally.

i am a single parent for 7 years now and i left my husband and tagged ny kids along with me. i treid to talk to them that i need to leave them at home so i can work or else they can not eat and not go to school as well. i have four children so i start to leave then to work my oldest is ten years old and the youngest was six. it was not the ideal age for children to be left out alone but i dont have much of a choice. if given a different senario i think it is better to leave them when the youngest is ten

I would say probably about the age of twelve and make sure there are rules and conditions. You would have to try it for short periods of time to see how the child handles it and hopefully there would be a neighbor near or the child would have a phone number to call. I think the legalities vary from state to state. Maybe you could check with your county or the local child advocacy group or child protective services in your area for advise.

I myself don't live to leave my daughter by herself. she at the age where she can, she 17, but in this day and age, one can't trust anyone. I worry to much. A couple of months ago, we had to take my mother (87)to the doctors, I left at home and I told her to be sure she locked everything. Also I know that when Sparky our dog is there, he will bark at anything and everything. Anyway, It was around 10 or 11 and I was waiting outside the office for my sister and my mother to come out. I was lending against the wall, I felt the wall move, and than it happen an earthquake, I didn't know what to do, all I knew I had to hurry up and get home to my daughter. By law you are allow to leave a child at the age 12 for two hours. 17 they can stay home alone. I choose not to leave her. Like I said, you can't turst anyone. It's not like it was when I was growing up. My mother would leave me at home and tell the neighbor to watch over me.

When I was a little kid my mom was a substitute teacher. We came home and were alone for about 30 minutes until my mom got home from work. It was no big deal. If we needed anything we knew to go to a neighbor for help. Never needed help though. We were good kids. We had baby sitters if our parents went out in the evening until I was 13. At 13 we moved and I started babysitting. I was a responsible kid and was capable of taking care of babies. It was in the neighborhood just down the street and the people I sat for told me to call my parents if there was a problem. There never was a problem. At 17 my parents left us alone for several weeks at a time. They went on vacation and we were left to go to school and come home. It wasn't a broiler. We were mature enough to drive to school and come home. We had a refrigerator full of food and were left money to buy milk and perishables.

As you said, the suitable time to leave children at home alone depends on the maturity of the child. My mother started leaving me home alone when I was 8, but only for a short period of time, like about 15-30 minutes. but if you're looking for the age of a child who can be left home alone, I would say 10 years old should be quite okay already...