What Is the Best Age to Leave a Child Home While Doing Errands Etc.?

I've left my 11 yr old home once or twice when I had a quick errand. I don't do it often. Once he's driving, I can stay home every now and then and send him off to run the errands.

I think arround age 9 to 11 is good. However, there are things you need to take into consideration. First is the laws in your state. Second is the maturity and responsibility level of the child. Third is how far your going to be from home in case they need you.

Another thing to consider is your state laws. And if you are leaving the oldest child in charge of other children. So you might also want to check into what your laws are. The reason I say that is you have to consider if someone might turn you in for leaving the child(ren) alone. Then think if something happens while you are gone there might be the risk of you getting into legal trouble because you left them alone.
We just recently started leaving our oldest (age 13) home if we are gone over an hour he is home by himself. But if it is for about 20 to 30 minutes we will leave his 9 yr old brother with him.

I think its depends more on the maturity level of your child rather than age. I started leaving my child home alone at 8 when I had errands. Texas has no legal age restrictions according to the Texas Family and Protective Services guidelines found on www.latchkey-kids.com, neither does Oklahoma.

Also, I would never leave my child alone without a land line phone. In too many cases with a cell it doesn't always get routed properly. We had this happen just a few week ago here where a lady called 911 from her cell at her house, she was being kidnapped and it didn't register her address and bounced her signal off a tower in another county. Needless to say even one incident of 911 not working properly on a cell is way too many!!

My kids were 10 when I started to leave them home alone for an hour or so to do errands, drive the other kid somewhere or when they would get home from school (I get home from work about 45 minutes after the middle school bus). However, not all kids are ready at that age. I think you need to determine if your child is responsible enough, understands the home alone rules and will follow them, and just as important - feels comfortable in staying home by himself/herself.

yeah, depends on the child. i see alot of moms here leave there kids alone around age 9-10, but my dad let me stay home with two little sisters when i was 8 (and they were 4 and 1). and it wasn't just for a quick errand, he and my step-mom went to their bowling league. but i was way more mature than any of the kids i knew.

It really depends on the child.
Is the child responsible, or will he/she get into mischief?
Is the child confident or nervous?
I didn't leave mine home until the oldest was in 6th grade and the youngest was in 4th. That was only for an hour or two at a time.... We increased it from there as they got more comfortable and we got more comfortable.
YMMV
LBC

I agree with the other comments on it being dependent on the child, their responsibility/maturity levels, etc.

I'd honestly feel comfortable around age 10 for short periods of time - enough to run to the grocery store for milk, bananas.

And, I'd feel much more comfortable if we knew the neighbors were around and able to help if needed. We're fortunate to have several SAHM in the neighborhood and a few older kids who would be able to help out as needed.

I think a lot of it depends on the child, his/her responsibility and his/her being comfortable home alone.

I allowed my daughter to stay home while I was gone for short periods of time and close by when she was around 9-10. As she has gotten older, we do allow her to stay home if we head out to dinner, errands or some event.

We have certain rules to follow and if those are broken then we have issues. So far, everything has been fine, she is a good kid, responsible and knows her boundaries.

I would say this, first check with your state and find out what is the legal age limit for a child to be left home alone; you don't want to get in trouble with the law if a neighbor finds out and calls the police on you.
Aside from that I think it depends how safe is the neighborhood you live at and lastly how mature your son/daughter is.
What ever you decide to do, just make sure that you won't get in trouble. I know that the age varies depending on the States.
Blessings

I think a lot depends on the child. My son is 10 and I started leaving him at home for short periods of time (hour or less) to run errands when he was about 9. Now- my son is very mature for his age, we had neighbors home next door and across the street he could go to for help, my cell phone on speed dial and 2 dogs in the house, lol! So I felt like he was pretty well covered. But- I also made sure HE was totally comfortable with it, and I was confident that he knew what to do in different situations - smoke alarm goes off, someone knocks on door, etc. Try some really short errands first and make your your child is ok with it before doing longer errands.

When I was 11 or so I stayed home alone for a few hours after school before my mom got home from work. My mom would make sure ahead of time that our downstairs neighbor was going to be home and when I got out of school I would check in with her and then go to our apartment and do whatever it was I did back then (watch TV probably).