I thought it was illegal to leave children under the age of 12 alone??

Kids mature at different ages, but mine was 12 before I left them at home alone.

I think that is too young regardless of how responsible she is. I’d go more for 12/13 years. Anything can happen and that age tends to panic.

I think if its only for half an hour, and your daughter is responsible and has a phone in case something goes wrong.

It really depends on the child’s maturity, my granddaughter aged 11 & an only child is often on her own as both parents work but only for a few hours. Her father was the eldest of 3 boys & I wouldn’t have trusted them all together at that age.

I can’t remember, but I think my child was about twelve years of age and I was only gone for less than an hour.

I think it all depends on where you live and what your neighbours are like. We live in a very small country town and I would leave my boys alone from the age of 6 since I’d only be gone for 5 – 10 minutes at a time.

It depends on them how independent they were. I do left them up to 30 minutes to 1 hour only occasionally. I have 3 kids. Now my youngest is 8 years old. Eldest is 12 years old.

I think our son was around 11 or older. It’s what we were all comfortable with. Only you know your children best. I appreciate the dilemma. I couldn’t exercise in the morning until after school drop off and in-between work start for the same reason.

I always believed the legal age to leave a child alone was 12, and baby sitting legal age was 14 but a quick google just told me the only Australian state that has an actual law is QLD, which states that you can’t leave under 12’s alone for unreasonable amounts of time. Due to this I stuck by the “rules” You know your children but your husband does also so I guess in your situation you need to come to an agreement where both parents are happy.

My daughter is 11 we live in a rural area and I’ve only left her alone couple of times when I take her little brothers for a 5min walk down our neighbours driveway. I’d never leave my 5yo or 3yo at home with her (I worry they’d try follow the car and they don’t get along) so I figure they can all come wherever I need to go.
If they are in school just walk the dogs then or when hubby gets home

You need to get the kids to come with you and walk the dog at a decent time! Seriously 4:30am. You can’t leave them at that age or they can be taken into care for your neglect. Be VERY careful thinking it’s only 5 minutes, or no one will find out, or nothing will ever happen, etc…. it does. Each state has different law and at the end of the day even once you’ve reached that ‘magic’ legal age for your state it’s a question of ‘are they ready’. I’ve seen parent’s caught out badly by this one. One popped out to the shop and returned to find an ‘incident’ in the street involving police and unstable person. It was shut down. She couldn’t get near for ages. Her kids were in the house.. for hours … alone. Police not amused. Kids terrified. Don’t do it!!!!!

The age of 11 if they are mature and responsible

I was told when my kids were younger that it was illegal to leave them home alone under the age of 15. I do not think they are responsible enough to be left home alone before that age

I remember being told once your child is in high school then that is the age you can leave them at home. Because when they are younger they would normally go to before and after school care. K-Year6 so one your child is in year 7 there is no before or after school care in which they can stay home.
My daughter is 12 and in year 7 and she babysits our other children while I have to duck to the shops or something.

My son is nearly 9 I am yet to leave him home alone.
Maybe you could work it up eg, go next door to the neighbours for 5min and build the time each visit until you reach 30min, then they know where you are if there is an emergency they can go next door and they are developing independence.

For me, I would say that’s a tad too young. At what age would you trust your 8 year old to look after your younger child, and to know what to do if there was an emergency at home? I guess it depends on the maturity of the elder child, but for me, I don’t like the idea of kids looking after kids.

I would wait till 12, however all kids have different maturity levels. Maybe even older if I find they aren’t ready at that age. I definitely spent a lot of my school holidays home alone as a tween/teen and I loved that my parents trusted me to do so instead of dropping me off at my grandmas.

Personally I would not leave them at the age. I think it’s way to young and anything can happen in a minute. I also believe there are state laws that say what age you are allowed to leave a child at home. I’ve only now allowed my 10 year old to walk to school by himself (10 minute walk). With instructions that if he does one thing wrong he will loss his privilege, he’s working up to independence.
I personally was left at home around 9/10 and locked after my 6/7 year old brother as my mum had to dash of to work when my parents separated but we had fantastic neighbours that we had to check in with when we got home. But that was 30 years ago.

I think it depends on the maturity and independence of each individual child, how long you are away for (ie 30 min dog walk, coffee shop around the corner to get a takeaway, or grocery shop of an hour or longer), whether child knows emergency protols (i.e. has/can use a phone to call for help, comfy to go to neighbours etc). The going age at my kid’s school seems to be grade 4 to ride/walk to school on their own. One of my friend’s son was in grade 4 when he was trusted to ride his grade 1 sister home from school. Id say if old enough to go to school alone then old enough stay at home alone. Grade 4 where i am is about 9-10 years old.