Advice on Leaving a Tween Home Alone

I start my kids at age 10 for short periods--now and then (not every day, I would not agree with that), then at 12 for longer times. My kids are both VERY trust worthy!! Now my DD is almost 14 and she is baby sitting other kids. I was baby sitting at 11.

You have to know you kids......each child is different. There are Home Alone classes through Parks and Rec. if you would like them to be prepared for an emergency......I highly recommend them!!

I have been leaving my 11 year old home alone when I pick up his brother from school. So this is a first for him to be alone in the house for about 30 minutes. I have left him and his 10 year old brother alone for about 15 minutes while I ran to the corner store for milk before. This has worked out fine so far.

I think 11 is old enough to be left for up to 30 minutes during the day and alone-- i.e. not responsible for the 7 and 2 year old. I definately would not leave and 11 year old for longer than an hour and not at night. I think 10 is definately too young. And I don't think I would leave a child under 13 or 14 responsible for siblings.

I have 6 kids and well with my oldest child I was able to trust and leave him home alone at 11 for short periods of time.However with my second child I couldn't until he was 13,just couldn't trust him.
With my third he is almost 13 and well I wouldn't feel right leaving him atm,because I feel he couldn't be trusted.
As for my last 3 they are still too young.

So all I can say is every child is different and it would depend on their maturitly level and how much you are able to trust them to be left alone for x amount of time.
Go with what your gut tells you and if you feel if your child is responsible enough to be able to be home alone for a short period of time.
Also you should talk to your child to see if they are ok with it as well.
Some children say they are ok then panic after a few minutes of realizing they are home alone.

I started leaving my son home alone at 10. It was only for about an hour each day after school. He had a key attached to his backpack (and we had given a neighbor a key). He knew he had to go into the house and lock the doors. He was not allowed to have friends over and he was not allowed to leave or even answer the door. My husband and I felt this was good practice because eventually he would be staying by himself and for longer than an hour at a time. My husband called the police department to find out if there was a legal age and they said there was not that it depended on the child (don't know if it's different laws for different cities). We never had a problem and it worked out great, plus we didn't have to pay for lachkey (spelling???) anymore lol.