What age can you leave kids home alone?

[xolily]

If a kid is 8, how old does their sibling have to be to leave them home alone? Thanks x

 

[ablacketer]

Im not sure where you are but here it depends on the state. Louisiana was 9 yrs to be left alone and 12 to be left in charge of another child.

 

[xtina6143]

I think it varies from state to state. Here in NY there isn't a set age. They just look at whether the kid is responsible and mature enough. Which to me is much better than just setting a guideline age because there are some 12 year olds who are mature and capable of caring for themselves for a short period of time then you have 12 year olds who shouldn't be left alone for 5 minutes.

 

[ablacketer]

https://www.latchkey-kids.com/latchkey-kids-age-limits.htm

lists legal limits by state

 

[Arcanegirl]

I *think* you cant leave a younger child with a minor alone...Im sure someone in my old area got into trouble for her 12ish year old taking her younger siblings for a walk with the buggy.

 

[marley2580]

You can leave a child home alone at any age as long as they are not at risk.

 

[MrsBandEgglet]

I thought it was thirteen but I guess you'd have to access how responsible they are. I know I wasn't that responsible and would have ended up burning the house down or something lol xx

 

[cupcake]

I think that it depends on who is doing the looking after, you might have a very responsible 13 year old, or a very irresponsible 16 year old.
I think under 13 is not the right thing to do. I would never leave a 10 year old alone in the house.

 

[Maman]

dont know. i would trust my 13 year old sister to watch my nearly 4 year old for up to an hour but no longer, i prob wouldnt let her watch my baby.

 

[ablacketer]

ya'll have never met my daughter. shes been baby sitting since she was twelve and has been permitted to stay home alone for an hour at 9 and it has gone up from there. she is mature and knows what to do in an emergency. maybe its because she is a military kid, I dont know.

 

[Natsku]

I was babysitting at age 13 so I would say from about that age, depending on how responsible the child is, of course.

 

[smelly07]

In the UK there is no law at all......its down to parents to decide when they feel their child is old enough to be left alone..... however the parents are still responsible for their child, so if anything happens in that time the parents would be held responsible.

also if you leave a child in the care of an under 18 year old or with someone not mentally or physically capable of looking after a child properly and something happens to your child in their care then they will not be held responsible......the parents will be.

 

[xolily]

My SIL left her 12 year old (nearly 13) home with her 8 year old while she did a 6 hour shift at work. She genuinely didn't think she was doing anything wrong as the 12 year old is mature and responsible. As it goes there was disturbance next door and so the police knocked on hers to see if they had heard anything, 8 year old answered the door and obviously it came to the policemans attention that the kids were home alone. He removed the kids from the house and took them to their aunties (2 streets away) and SIL has now been told SS might get involved. It's not something I would do but I do accept that her son is responsible enough to mind the other one! She's really worried now bless her =/ thing is she could've easily asked any family member to mind them as they all live within streets of eachother but she genuinely didn't think she was doing anything wrong Hope too much doesn't come of it! x

 

[suzib76]

personally i wouldnt leave a 12 yo in charge of an 8 yo - especially siblings, as they tend to fight etc etc

i was left alone (without any siblings to look after) from 10yo and came across several situations i would pefer never to have happened

the biggest thing is while the 12 yo is mature enough to be left, what if an emergency occurred? - yes ok the 12 yo WOULD cope - however the 12 yo should not HAVE to cope

i had a house fire start when i was 11, yes i did all the right things, but i have a dd who is almost that age and i would never in a million years put her in a situation where she might have to deal with something like that

 

[mandy81]

You learn something new every day

I really did think a child had to be 16 before you could leave it alone or leave it to look after a younger child


I have an 9 year old girl (she acts 20) I don't think i could leave her to look after her 5 year old brother even for 20 minutes, it just wouldn't feel right to me.

But hey as the saying goes each to there own

 

[Mrs R]

In the UK there is no law at all......its down to parents to decide when they feel their child is old enough to be left alone..... however the parents are still responsible for their child, so if anything happens in that time the parents would be held responsible.

also if you leave a child in the care
of an under 18 year old or with someone not mentally or physically capable of looking after a child properly and something happens to your child in their care then they will not be held responsible......the
parents will be.

I work for social services in N.Ireland so technically part of the UK. We don't allow children under 13 to be left alone and children cannot be left with someone under 16. We class it as neglect and the child's name would be placed on the Child Protection Register. Have never known anybody to be prosecuted where I work though. The police tend to let social services deal with issues like that as that's more effective

 

[xolily]

personally i wouldnt leave a 12 yo in charge of an 8 yo - especially siblings, as they tend to fight etc etc

i was left alone (without any siblings to look after) from 10yo and came across several situations i would pefer never to have happened

the biggest thing is while the 12 yo is mature enough to be left, what if an emergency occurred? - yes ok the 12 yo WOULD cope - however the 12 yo should not HAVE to cope

i had a house fire start when i was 11, yes i did all the right things, but i have a dd who is almost that age and i would never in a million years put her in a situation where she might have to deal with something like that

Yeah as I said I probably wouldn't i'm just wondering where she stands when it comes to police/SS seeing as it's not against the law. The kids had her mobile and work number should they need her, plus they have almost all of the family living in the surrounding streets if anything happened.

 

[xolily]

In the UK there is no law at all......its down to parents to decide when they feel their child is old enough to be left alone..... however the parents are still responsible for their child, so if anything happens in that time the parents would be held responsible.

also if you leave a child in the care
of an under 18 year old or with someone not mentally or physically capable of looking after a child properly and something happens to your child in their care then they will not be held responsible......the
parents will be.

I work for social services in N.Ireland so technically part of the UK. We don't allow children under 13 to be left alone and children cannot be left with someone under 16. We class it as neglect and the child's name would be placed on the Child Protection Register. Have never known anybody to be prosecuted where I work though. The police tend to let social services deal with issues like that as that's more effective

i've read the NSPCC and like the lady said, there is no law.. aslong as you feel your child is capable of looking after him/herself and will come to no harm, there is no legal age. if it's not against the law and you think your child is ok on his/her own then i'm guessing it'd be a confusing that next news social services could be involved think there needs to be some clearer guidelines xx

 

[smelly07]

In the UK there is no law at all......its down to parents to decide when they feel their child is old enough to be left alone..... however the parents are still responsible for their child, so if anything happens in that time the parents would be held responsible.

also if you leave a child in the care
of an under 18 year old or with someone not mentally or physically capable of looking after a child properly and something happens to your child in their care then they will not be held responsible......the
parents will be.

I work for social services in N.Ireland so technically part of the UK. We don't allow children under 13 to be left alone and children cannot be left with someone under 16. We class it as neglect and the child's name would be placed on the Child Protection Register. Have never known anybody to be prosecuted where I work though. The police tend to let social services deal with issues like that as that's more effective

i've read the NSPCC and like the lady said, there is no law.. aslong as you feel your child is capable of looking after him/herself and will come to no harm, there is no legal age. if it's not against the law and you think your child is ok on his/her own then i'm guessing it'd be a confusing that next news social services could be involved think there needs to be some clearer guidelines xx

i was on training ran by social workers recently and this is a topic we discussed the majority of us on training thought there was a 'certain age' but in England there definitely isnt.
people can report someone if they feel they are being 'neglectful' which then gets investigated but there is no law.........if a child under 18 is left alone or left to look after younger siblings or whoever and anything happens it falls back on the parents.
There was a parent of a child in my town very recently who would drop her eldest to school and then drop her younger one to pre-school whilst leaving the baby at home asleep in the cot......we rang SS who looked into it and that was classed as neglectful and she was told if it happened again they would take it further.

imo it isnt fair that children should be left with that responsibilty of looking after younger siblings.. no matter how responsible or mature they may be. x

 

[ablacketer]

i disagree. how are they going to learn if they arent given any responsibility?