another what age for kids to

[clori]

1. be left home alone for say 15 minutes at a time

2. to walk to/from school alone - say 1/2 mile with sidewalks and crossing guard at 1 major street

3. take public transportation (bus) alone

 

[SaraJayne]

I will leave my 3rd grader (9 years old) alone for up to half an hour now. We just started that a couple months ago.

As for 2 and 3, those aren't options here, so I don't have an answer for those.

 

[DeniseinNS]

1. be left home alone for say 15 minutes at a time- around 11

2. to walk to/from school alone - say 1/2 mile with sidewalks and crossing guard at 1 major street- 11, I'd let them a bit younger if they were walking with other kids

3. take public transportation (bus) alone- at least 13 or older

 

[Stacy9402]

Ok I have 3 girls 16, 7 (8 in September) & 2 (3 in August).

Since I have the 16 year old if I have to leave she watches. I never really had to leave her alone. I would leave her in the house while I was outside.

2) With my oldest she started some in 2nd grade walking home if I didn't make it to the bus stop. I was pregnant and it was a complicated one - 2 blood transfusions so I didn't have a lot of energy.
But it was right up the street and no major roads to cross just side street at her bus stop.

My second child is alittle on the small side and she tried to walk home by herself this year and the safety patrol stopped her (we have moved so new neighborhood). He did walk her down. But they thought she was Kindergarten not 2nd grade.
We are going to try next year with her walking home after the first week since I will have to talk to the patrols. Again no major intersections just side street at bus stop and she would have to cross the road in front of our house. We are in a cul-de-sac and sidewalks are only on one side and of course it is the other side..

There really hasn't been a need for my 16 year old to take public transportation alone and I am not sure I would be comfortable with it. We live in Northern Va.

 

[NHdisneylover]

1. be left home alone for say 15 minutes at a time

2. to walk to/from school alone - say 1/2 mile with sidewalks and crossing guard at 1 major street

3. take public transportation (bus) alone

It depends on the kid and the area you live in. I happen to have two pretty responsbile and confident kids. They both took Red Cross Staying Home Alone courses (to reinforce everything I told them) at 8 (in New Hampshire--we now live in Germany).
MY answers for MY kids:

1. 8
2. We lived 5 miles from town in NH so it was not an option. We moved here when they had just turned 10 and 12 and within a month they were taking a street car and then walking home from school either alone or "alone together" depending on the day. I certainly would have let them walk in conditions you describe by this age--probably by 8 or 9.
3. See above! 10 was no problem and I would have felt comfortable with that in Boulder, Colorado where I grew up as well on known routes. They now (at 11 and 13) regularly take public transit (busses, street cars and trains) all over the city and suburbs. It is normal here and lots of people are out and about, I am not sure if I would feel as comfortable with my younger one doing the same sort of thing in a US city. The 13 year old I would be fine with anyway.

 

[Mickey's Minion]

1. be left home alone for say 15 minutes at a time

2. to walk to/from school alone - say 1/2 mile with sidewalks and crossing guard at 1 major street

3. take public transportation (bus) alone

For my kids:

1) 15 minutes - 8 or 9
2) 1st grade, although preferable with a group
3) around 12

Actually, this cannot be definitively answered as it really depends on the maturity of the child. Each child is different in what he/she can handle, so it will be different for different children.

 

[mom2travel]

1. be left home alone for say 15 minutes at a time - 10 - I would let DD stay if I just needed to run to a neighbor's house or something very close

2. to walk to/from school alone - say 1/2 mile with sidewalks and crossing guard at 1 major street - middle school/11 or 12, slightly younger if there were lots of other kids/parents walking that route home. DD's walk is shorter than that and there are tons of others who know her walking also, so this year (10) I'm ok with her leaving school and meeting me along the way. DH does not want her to walk all the way home by herself though

3. take public transportation (bus) alone - I think this depends on where you live and how long the child has lived there. I would be ok with DS(15) taking public transit in our town, but wouldn't let him loose in Manhattan or Chicago alone because he is not familiar with those cities.

 

[mjkacmom]

1. be left home alone for say 15 minutes at a time I'D LEAVE DD7 AND DD9, BUT NOT DS7.

2. to walk to/from school alone - say 1/2 mile with sidewalks and crossing guard at 1 major street MY OLDEST 2 STARTING WALKING WHEN THEY WERE IN THE 2ND AND 4TH GRADE (6 BLOCKS, CROSSING GUARD AT MAJOR STREET). I'D LET EVERYONE WALK NOW, BUT I CARPOOL WITH A NEIGHBOR WHO WOULDN'T BE COMFORTABLE WITH IT.

3. take public transportation (bus) alone 13

 

[minkydog]

I started letting my oldest stay alone for 15 minutes at age 8. By age 10, I was leaving him for 30 minutes with the care of his brother and sister, then 3 & 1. I worked nights and DH worked days. There was a 30 min window between when I left and he got home. DS was very mature for his age and took great care of his siblings. I always left the baby dry & fed, and a movie on and snacks to eat while waiting for dad to come home. It worked well for many months.

And then one afternoon on my way to work, bad weather moved in. Real bad weather. A tornado was headed straight for our neighborhood. Cell towers were down and I couldn't reach the kids or DH. I was stuck in bumper-to-bumper Atlanta traffic and couldn't move. I was crying hysterically. I shouldn't have worried so much. DS-then 10 had moved both kids to the safe room in the basement, turned on the radio and was reading them stories to keep them calm. He even grabbed a bottle on the way down the stairs. Thankfully, the tornado skipped over our neighborhood and didn't cause any damage to the house. My DH arrived shortly after the tornado passed and found the kids still in the basement, safe and sound.

In retrospect, I don't think this was a completely awful thing since everything worked out well. Still, it upset me terribly at the time and I changed my work hours so that I no longer had to leave home before DH came in.

ETA: I walked myself to school from the time I entered 1st grade. This wasn't out in the country,either. It was in a busy city. And I had to walk through a graveyard. I guess my mom was just overwhelmed with 4 kids(I was the oldest) and she had no car. there was no bus service. So it was walk to school and hope you got there. But I would never let one of my kids do that, if I had to put all the little ones in the same stroller and walk the other one to school!

 

[Bunnyfeather]

This depends so much on the kid, the situation and the community.

1. be left home alone for say 15 minutes at a time: To go where? If I were running next door I'd say 5 or 6 for my kids. If I were going to drive anywhere, I'd probably be gone 30 minutes and I'd say probably 9 or so. But I might well be OK with doing it with both kids home when the eldest is 9 and the younest is 7. If they continue to be the sort of kids who do not go looking for trouble.

2. to walk to/from school alone - say 1/2 mile with sidewalks and crossing guard at 1 major street: The elementary school is across the street past our back gate and I can see the entrance to the school and the entire traveled path. If I was standing on the porch watching and they had proven they know to look both ways every time, I would probably say late Kindergarten to walk to school. Once they have been reliable with supervision for a year or 2, I would probably be OK with walking to and from with neighbor kids. Alone would depend on doing it with other kids reliably for a while.

3. take public transportation (bus) alone: That's a hard one. If we lived somewhere where public transportation was common and accessible and the child was both reliable and very familiar, I'd say somewhere around 11 to 13. But my young kids don't experience public transportation with adults enough to become familiar and comfortable with it. So I would probably say 14 to 16, just because they need to be old enough to make really good choices in an unfamilair and complex situation.