Mine are 12 and 9. We've left them alone during the day for an hour or two for about a year. Now, we'll leave them alone for a couple of hours in the evening if we go to dinner.

Anonymous wrote:I stopped when my kids were 3 and 4 and they begged me not to get one ever again. They hated being left with other people. So we never had a sitter again and our family lives overseas, so basically we just did not go out for YEARS.

That's ridiculous. Talk about kids ruling the roost!

Anonymous wrote:Any pps have an only?

I have one DD, I think we're going to hit an age at 11/12 where she would be a little scared to be home alone at night for a few hours, but also too old for a sitter.

Yes, my DD is 12 and will be 13 soon. We recently went to a show and were out late enough that it made sense to have someone stay with her. We would have been fine with her being alone, but she gets kind of freaked out if it’s late. I’m hopeful she’ll be comfortable by herself sometime in the coming year.

I have a 11, 10, 4. I’d leave the 11 and 10 yr old home for a short time, but not all three together. The older two get busy with stuff and ignore the 4 yr old or the 4 yr old wants in on what they are doing and they don’t want to play with the 4 yr old- que arguing and fighting. So…we still use babysitters and probably will for another 1-2 yrs

Anonymous wrote:Any pps have an only?

I have one DD, I think we're going to hit an age at 11/12 where she would be a little scared to be home alone at night for a few hours, but also too old for a sitter.

I was an only and started babysitting at 11. Pretty sure my parents had a neighbor “check on me” until I was @12 but they definitely left me home alone.

10

I stopped when my kids were 3 and 4 and they begged me not to get one ever again. They hated being left with other people. So we never had a sitter again and our family lives overseas, so basically we just did not go out for YEARS.

I have kids with a similar age spread as OP, but my younger one has fear of the dark, fear of being alone, etc, so I had to wait until my older child was mature enough to handle those things.

Anonymous wrote:Any pps have an only?

I have one DD, I think we're going to hit an age at 11/12 where she would be a little scared to be home alone at night for a few hours, but also too old for a sitter.

I gave an only. She is 9. We have left her 2.5 hours but not in the dark. I think she would be comfortable though, we have 2 dogs and she can FaceTime us thru kids messenger if she needs to. We’ve only done it for work. I would feel guilty going out on a date and leaving her home alone in the evening.

Any pps have an only?

I have one DD, I think we're going to hit an age at 11/12 where she would be a little scared to be home alone at night for a few hours, but also too old for a sitter.

When my older child turned 14 and seemed responsible enough to babysit his younger brother. We'll leave them alone for the occasional work day when they're off from school, or a few hours at night.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never had them. 12 I'll leave mine home for a little bit. We don't eat out nor would we without them.

You have never eaten out without your kids??

The expense made it very rare for us. They went to bed early anyways.

Well that doesn't answer the original intent of the question. It's not about the expense or bedtime, it's about the age to leave them alone together for more than a quick daytime errand.

Depends on my kids. One was totally fine for two hours at age 7. One was fine for two hours at age 11 if they could FaceTime Grandma and chat for an hour of that time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never had them. 12 I'll leave mine home for a little bit. We don't eat out nor would we without them.

You have never eaten out without your kids??

The expense made it very rare for us. They went to bed early anyways.

Mine are 13, 11, 8, and just in the past year we've started leaving the alone for date nights (but we stay relatively close). It was probably a year or two ago that we'd leave them home alone to run random errands. Of course, they can always reach us over the phone, and they call us when they have a question about something.

Pre-covid, we always had a sitter, but then there was like nine months to a year when one of us was basically always home due to covid, and we didn't really do date nights. Once we came out on the other side of that, we haven't had a sitter, and I don't know if I ever will again unless I need someone to drive, do real cooking, etc.