At what age should children be allowed to start staying home alone?

Question

There are children in my neighborhood getting in all kinds of trouble when their parents are at work, the parents say daycare is too high and so are babysitters. (this is an upper middle class area, not poor!) most of the children are 8-10 i think it is a bit young to be unsupervised all day. one mom even goes out after work and sometimes is not home until morning, her boys are 7 and 9

Answer 1

Laws vary from state to state. In Hawaii you can leave 10 years olds alone but only for up to 3 or 4 hours. There are limits for all ages up until 18--anything under 10 cannot be left alone for any period of time.

Answer 2

my parents started letting me and my sister stay home alone when she was 12 and i was around 10ish, but we were also really mature for our age

Answer 3

Most states don't have a law, just that you can "safely leave the child on its own without endangerment" is the general guideline.  I was staying home alone by the time I was 10 or 11, but I wasn't in charge of any younger siblings.  I think you can leave them by themselves at 10, but they should have to be 12 to watch a younger sibling

Answer 4

12 yrs.

Answer 5

There is a little boy and girl who lives down the street from me, they are like probably 4 at the oldest. From the time morning comes until late in the evening they are out in the street playing. I mean in the street. One day they were out playing with two friends who were even younger-one in diapers. They were in front of my house playing with our little girl (shes 10-old enough to be outside alone) I sent the kids home and sure enough they were back 15 minutes later.

Answer 6

my mom called cps and they said that there is no age limit in letting your kids stay home alone. but my mom says about 12 to 13 is a good age.

Answer 7

My cousins actually started staying home at the age of 1 and 2 (there were two of them). There dad would come home every 5 hours just to see what was up and I thought that was ok.

Different parents have different rule but here in FL I don't think that there is a legal age at least IDK about it.

My parents are going to start letting me stay home when I am 13,14,15(I'm 12).

So to answer you question it would be different states have different laws. Different parents have different. But me I think maybe 14 when you start high school its pretty reasonable.

Answer 8

I stayed home alone when I was 9,and i am not a bad kid and never was!

Answer 9

I think legal age is like 13 (at least where I live)

But I guess you could lower that to 10/11/12. I guess it depends on how mature your kid is. Anything lower than 10 is a no-no.

Answer 10

What state do you live in?  In Washington state it is actually illegal to leave a child home alone unless they are 12yrs or older.

Answer 11

I think about 13..depends mostly on matureity of child..if he/she is really good kid..12-13

but if they are hellions..

then older..or never. :-)

Answer 12

in texas its 12 yrs but even at 12 all day is to long and if the child is not mature enough to follow the rules i would wait a few more years

Answer 13

I was 9 years old when I started staying alone. I think about the age of 10 is appropriate to stay home alone.

Answer 14

I would say whenever the kid enters middle school. So around 11 or 12 years old and that's only if its for a couple of hours and  waiting on parents to get off work.

I think a kid should be 15 or 16 before they are allowed to babysit or stay alone during the night.