Reply to What age can you leave kids home alone in Virginia?

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[quote=Anonymous]I know lots of posters are posting about their babysitting “back in the day,” but I’m finding this mostly rings true today. Super responsible 12 year old girls are babysitting elementary aged kids — not infants, but definitely ages 5 and up. My daughter and her friends do this multiple times a year.

I would have no qualms leaving a responsible 11 year old with a generally rule following 5 year old.

Frankly, my kid would have been fine left alone at age 5, but I never would have actually done that. When she was 6, school let out early due to a power outage and the school let her walk home even though we were out of town in NYC (a babysitter was coming to our house before school let out). I frantically called neighbors until one went to get her. When they arrived, she had gotten a snack, unpacked her backpack and was playing basketball. She wasn’t worried at all.

I have a second daughter who will be cognitively a baby forever (unless gene therapy becomes successful). If I could get her to be about age 5 cognitively, I would feel very good about her ability to navigate the world. People don’t realize just how much young kids can handle until they have a baby cognitively forever.[/quote]

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