Well, I’ll answer for myself since I don’t have any young’uns of my own. As far as I can remember in elementary school, I always knew where the spare key was for my house so I could walk home (I lived only a few blocks from school) and let myself in. I also remember that on a regular basis, I’d let myself in and my dad would be at work and my mom would be out on errands, so I’d just fix myself a snack and start on schoolwork. Thus, I want to say I was left alone starting around 7-8, but my memory is pretty hazy.
I don’t have any kids, but I think my parents’ answer is about two weeks!:eek:
When my little brother was born, my mom went out to do some shopping, and my Dad and I decided to go out for a little too. About a half hour out, we remembered my new little brother.
My mother said, “I didn’t need a babysitter after I was 11.” But the rule was not really enforced.
For instance, we had an “aquacenter” which was a place with a bunch of pools. In the summer I bought a pass. I would walk over to the aquacenter at 8:30am and often times I wouldn’t get back to 8pm.
I wasn’t supposed to be left alone but I could say “Ma, I’m going to the park,” and be gone for eight hours. This was when I was 7 years old. No one thought anything of it.
We’d grab a sandwich and take it to the park in the summer. If you hung around the house, my mother found chores for you to do, so you made darn well certain you weren’t around.
So in otherwords, you couldn’t be left alone but you could go play in the park all day with no supervison.
It was a different time then.
But after I turned 12, my father had died the year before, so my mum specifically took me on the train and the subway and to places like social security so I knew where they were and how to get around as an adult would.
Something similar happened in our household! My youngest, mudgirl, was maybe six months; that means my older two were probably around 8 and 12. The 12YO was at a friend’s house. I walked down to the grocery store (a couple blocks away), leaving hubby home with the middle kid and the napping mudgirl. As I was coming out of the market, I saw my hubby and middle daughter walking to the store; I stopped them: “Oh, uh, hi, what are you doing here? Is everything OK?” Hubby says “Sure; I just forgot to tell you we needed more soda, so we thought we’d walk down and get some”. I said “And. . .the baby? Where’s the baby?” Hubby (as the light dawns): " :eek: "
He’d forgotten she was up in her room sound asleep!
I rushed home (just a couple minutes), but I was not a happy camper!
I started leaving our oldest daughter home alone when she was 10 or 11, but she has always been infinitely stable and responsible. She came home from college night before last and when I got home from work yesterday, she had cleaned the whole house. However, the younger two were hellions and had to be watched closely or they would set something on fire.
My daughter was twelve when I started leaving her at home while I worked. She was alone around four hours. I left her a sheet of chores I expected to be done and she never failed me once in two years. She is a GOOD daughter, no doubt about it. Still is at twenty. 
Not yet. Kids are 11 and 10, and because we’re so new still to the diabetes thing, I suspect it will still be a couple of years away.
No kids, but I wasn’t left home alone that long until I was a teenager. My parents felt I lacked the common sense necessary to stay home alone. I was pretty blasted clumsy.
Still, I got mad when my sister was allowed to do it at 11.