An 8 year old girl for an hour, okay.
A 17 year old boy for a weekend, NO WAY.
~VOW
Another “it depends on the kid”. I think my son was ready around 8. My daughter, who will be 7 next week, had her first 15-minutes-home-alone “test” a few weeks ago. Passed with flying colors, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. She’s fierce, is that one.
I suspect it will be limited to 15-20 minutes for the next 6 months, then maybe we’ll try an hour.
The most important thing is attitude. If they’re eager, they’re probably ready. (Until they’re 12; then if they’re eager, they’re probably plotting…)
I’ve often only felt comfortable leaving one of my older boys home knowing that his younger sister was home to watch him. 
I have a 10 and 7 year old. I’ve started leaving them for short trips to the grocery, but not much longer than that. Usually I come back to find that the only things that have moved are their wrists on the Wii controller. In fact, I’m not positive they would know I was gone unless I told them.
Although my 10 year old wants to stay home alone, I am loathe to do so because, while he is super safety-aware, I am not sure how well he would respond to an emergency. I think he may freak out and freeze. Also, he is quite a “rules lawyer” and would find a technicality or loop-hole to get around what he wanted to do. I can see it now: “You said not to cook on the stove or oven while you are gone and went out of your way to include grilling. You never said I couldn’t make a fire ring and grill with coat hangers. Sorry about the house. But we *were *hungry and there weren’t any prepared snacks in the house so you can see how this is really your fault, right?”
The only way to work with rules lawyers (I am one myself, hence the username) is to leave them a list of what they MAY do, and anything not on it is forbidden.
You may cook using the sink, refrigerator, pantry and microwave. You will clean all dishes, counters and silverware that you dirty.
You may do homework which requires pen, pencil and/or calculator. (No glue, no paint, no lava volcanoes, etc.)You may read, play xbox and watch television after your homework is done.
You may sleep in your bed after your homework is done.
You may pee and poop and wipe both accordingly. You will wash and dry your hands when you are done doing either.
You may breathe. This time.
I’m SO using this with my children. I think (with your permission) I shall post this on the fridge.
Eli
Huh, here in New Zealand the legal age is 14:
[QUOTE=CYFS]
New Zealand, it is against the law to leave children under 14 without making reasonable provision for their care and supervision. What is considered ‘reasonable’ also takes into account the circumstances under which children are left alone and the length of time they are alone. Parents are required to assess all the circumstances and make sure that any child left alone is safe and in no danger.
[/QUOTE]
Of course it’s just fine and dandy to let your 5 year old walk to school…
Absolutely! It’s also, I’ll be honest, just refreshing and positive to list “Do’s”! We spend sooooo much time telling kids (and adults) “Don’t!” Do is empowering, don’t is a power struggle waiting to happen. 
lisiate, This issue is one where I think Illinois (my state) really nailed it. There is no absolute age, but a huge list of “Considerations” which a judge needs to take into account before taking action against a parent for leaving a kid alone. Things like how long, if they’ve been left okay before, if there are provisions for food, if they have an emergency contact number and know how to use it, etc. It really makes so much more sense than to just say that leaving a 13 year and 364 day old person alone is horrible, but that one day when they’re now 14, they’re okay.
I got to stay home alone all day (during summer and Xmas vacations) from the time I was 9. Nothing bad ever happened and it was the best time of my life.
For at least as long as you’d let them play outside without supervision I’d say. If they are OK with it, they know how to handle an emergency, there’s a neighbor on call if needed, and they are skilled at calling you in your cell.
That’s a much more sensible approach, but requires much more discretion and judgment to be exercised by judges (and parents for that matter) than a blanket rule. I guess it comes down to a societal preference for how laws should be - simple and clear, but inflexible and arbitrary versus nuanced and taking into account all the circumstances but complicated and possibly inconsistently applied.
When my son was 10 (he may have been 9, but I’m pretty sure it was 10) he started to come home after school and stay by himself for 2-3 hours every day. He’s very much a creature of habit, and absolutely hated the school aftercare program that he’d been in previously.
He would come home after school, walk the dog, do his homework, make a snack then do whatever else he pleased until one of us got home. We never had a kind of problem with this. The main result is that he’s sort of indefatigable in World of Warcraft now.
FWIW, I just found out he got recently received the highest grade in history*.
He’s 14 at the end of next month and will start high school next year. I wouldn’t have done this with his sister, who is a lot more sociable and likely to “bend” the rules.
*Ok, History, not history, but that’s how I heard it.
I’m not sure if the correct response is “That’s because they’ll drink all your booze” or “You can leave them alone with me (nudge nudge).”
Seriously folks, I reckon the good people here are right, and it depends on the kid. A responsible 8 year old should be fine for a few hours while you and the hub go eat. My general rule of thumb is 12 is old enough to be left alone, and 9 for well=-behaved, mature kids. These numbers, of course, aren’t written in stone and are based on my loose feelings about how kids those ages generally behave. But “generally” is not “always.” If she’s a good kid and it’s just two hours, I say have it.
I’m not a parent, I should point out, and I don’t know anything, so feel free to ignore this.
After posting this I did manage to watch an episode of the show, and she kind of answered my question in an unexpected way - it seems like cellphones have made parents more overprotective, because they’re used to being in constant contact with their kids.