For 10 minutes? That's walking my dog in the neighborhood. Just teach them to say Alexa call 911 and it's fine.

DH and I have always been super-protective parents. We basically toted our kids everywhere we went.

We started leaving our kids under the supervision of my eldest when she was 14 yr old for 20-30 minutes. But even that was very rare. We also had all kinds of alarm system, nest cams etc and they we monitored remotely.

Anyways, my kids have grown into responsible and successful adults. So it was not that they did not become independent with the amount of hovering I did.

Once they're 8, I don't know what's stopping them from being able to be home alone for however many hours. I babysat more than four younger siblings by 11.

I guess it depends on how responsible they are.

My parents left me and my 2 siblings at home alone, thinking we would be fine. We thought we would help while they were out. By the time they got home, I had cut my finger that badly it required stitches. My brother set fire to the mower trying to start is and my sister flooded the house, thinking she would water that gardens.

They literally arrived home to a fire engine and ambulance parked in the driveway, imagine what they must have thought as the turned down the street. I guess we got a big F as responsible.

Anonymous wrote:I think we started when our kids were 8 and 10 for short trips. Now they are 10 and 12 and we will leave them and go out to run errands or the occasional date night. I was babysitting infants when I was 12 and my 12 year is Red Cross certified.

This is a big relief. We have a baby and a neighbor we think is around 12

He doesn’t sleep through the night yet, jt once he does I would feel comfortable asking her to babysit for an in neighborhood date night if you used to do this

I had two very active boys and we lived on 7 acres. I was always scared to leave them home alone since they could find trouble. I think it depends on the child.

One time when I was home the whole upstairs filled with smoke and our fire alarm went off. The fire department came out. One of them thought it was funny to throw his underwear on top of a lamp. Little sh#t caught the lamp on fire. He was four years old. They are successful adults now but they gave me grey hair very early.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia guidelines, Fairfax county start at 10-11 but for 3 hours max

Fairfax county says I can’t leave a nine year old some for ten minutes?! That’s insane.

Fairfax County guidelines are

8 and under -- never

9 - 10, up to 1.5 hours during daylight (but weirdly it also says 10 year olds can babysit up to 3 hours. I can not figure that out)

11 - 12 up to 3 hours, daylight or evening (and up to 3 hours of babysitting)

13 - 15 more than 3 hours, but not overnight

16 - 17 one or two nights is OK with a plan in place.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/familyservices/children-youth/child-supervision-guidelines

Other than the 10 year olds being able to babysit longer than they can stay alone, which is weird, these were pretty close to my instincts led me to do for my particular kids, although I can imagine that other kids might be ready for more or less.

I started that around age 8ish. Usually when dropping off or picking up a sibling nearby, or grabbing a last minute item from the supermarket down the road.

Worked well, and then we worked up very gradually from there

Anonymous wrote:Virginia guidelines, Fairfax county start at 10-11 but for 3 hours max

Fairfax county says I can’t leave a nine year old some for ten minutes?! That’s insane.

8.