How long do you allow your 9.5 year old to stay home on their own?
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Anonymous
| Safe house with access to a phone. Just curious. |
Anonymous
| Zero minutes. Too young. Started at age 11. |
Anonymous
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At 9 an hour to an hour and a half.
We started at 8 just for 20 mins. Then gradually built up. Now at 11 we’ve done 3.5 hours and do this about twice a month. We have a dog. A landline and she has a cell phone. We also have good neighbors she can go to in a crisis. In theory I would possibly leave for longer now, we just haven’t needed to. |
Anonymous
| Depends on the child |
Anonymous
| 1 hour? We have 3 kids and have been leaving the older two at home for grocery runs since they were 9 and 7… maybe even a little earlier. They are responsible girls. We have a 5 year old boy also and have not left him alone yet. We might in a year or so, but he will already be with his older sisters who will be 11-12 and 9-10 |
Anonymous
| About an hour for something like a grocery run or taking my younger kid (4) to an appointment. He’s 8.5. That’s about when my parents started with me. I wouldn’t let my 8.5 year old watch the 4 year old though, that’s too much responsibility. |
Anonymous
| I would do it all day if I needed to though I’ve never had to. Especially if my kid could call me with questions or if they had an issue. My 8yo has been home alone for 2-3 hours at a stretch and it was fine aside from being bored. |
Anonymous
| 2.5-3 hours if needed. She gets bored and lonely, so we try to keep it bc two, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. |
Anonymous
Actually it was 2.5 hours, then I was home for a couple hours, then another 3 hours. (I had appointments, kid was feeling sufficiently under the weather I said it was okay to stay home from school but not actually sick, it was apparently a very boring day and next time school would be preferable.) |
Anonymous
| I started leaving my youngest home alone at that age to drive the older one to middle school. Sometimes they were sleeping x sometimes not. About 20 minutes round trip. They watched tv. |
Anonymous
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1-2 hours during daylight hours for my oldest who is currently 9.75. He is a super responsible kid, knows what the rules are when we are not home (no friends in the house, no cooking/heating food, etc.), and we live on a cul de sac where everyone has elementary or younger children and nearly everyone works from home. He can text us, but if he was scared or lonely he can also go to one of 6 houses of a neighbor.
As neighbors we often spontaneously watch each other’s kids so someone can run an errand or drop off a kid at an activity without dragging all the siblings. |
Anonymous
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We live in a dense part of the city and let our 9 year old stay home for about 30-45 minutes or so. He knows not to answer the door and what to do in case of a fire. He knows how to call 911 from the landline (yes we still have one) and how to call our cells. He’s pretty responsible. I’d let him stay home along longer if the need arose.
I do not let my 7 year old stay home with the 9 year old. No way. |
Anonymous
| OP here - interesting! We have not done longer than 30 minutes but I have been thinking of doing a little longer so I can take my younger one somewhere. Any sort of class is at least 60 minutes with driving so it would be a bit of a jump. |
Anonymous
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At 9, only up to an hour while we ran out to the grocery store or something.
By 10 we were up to an hour or two like going to the gym. |
Anonymous
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About an hour. She’s fine during the day, but doesn’t like being left that long when’s it dark. She’ll call me on the landline and want to talk.
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