When my oldest was 12 we started to let her stay at home for short periods of time by herself - like an hour or so while I ran to the store. Now that my youngest is 10 (almost) 11 and going in to Middle School I let her stay home for an hour or two alone. She's going to be getting off the school bus by herself in a few weeks and will need to be home alone for about 1 hour each day. I want her to be ready for that.
Heck at 12 I think I was babysitting other people's kids for hours (like 5) at a time.
|