my son is 14 and i still ont like him home alone. I know thathe looks up pornography on our computer and quite frankly its disgusting. i know this becuse i know all of his passwords. i know its wrong but i also read his emails to. he's my only son and his sisters are so much better. they never get into trouble like he does!

I was a latch-key kid by the time I was 7. Horrible, right? My parents were broke and trying to make a go of it at a restaurant business in the city. When the bus dropped me off at home, I would basically heat up TV dinners on the toaster (the only cooking appliance I was allowed to use), do my homework, get showered and go to bed. My parents didn't come home until midnight. I only saw them on weekend mornings. One time, I kept hearing this strange noise in the house. I grabbed the phone, hid in the closet, and called my dad and told him I thought that there was someone in the house. I still remember being so scared and hiding in the closet until he came home. He tells me that the phone call was one of the worst moments of his life. The culprit was a dying battery on our smoke detector. After that day, my dad literally begged my grandmother to come from Taiwan to take care of me and so she did. I was a pretty trustworthy kid, but I just remembered being terrified and lonely every day. I knew I had to suck it up because my parents had no money for a babysitter. They did have friends nearby, including a stay-at-home mom down the block--I always wondered why she never invited me over even for a little while--it would have been nice.

OHMYGOODNESS!! Thank you so much! This year, one day a week, my daughter (VERY mature 10 year old, 5th grader) comes home alone for about 30-60 minutes. (My mom watches her the other 4 days a week). And geesh! I whisper this to my friends but would not dream of telling the mom's at bball practice! The gasps I would get in response. Phew, thanks for letting me know I am not the only neglectful parent out there ;)

My daughter, my oldest, is 11, turning 12 this month. We had discussed a few babysitting basics with her, and I was able to leave her home alone watching her 3 younger brothers while I ran to the post office or the store for about 15-20 minutes. It was nice to be able to go pick up my youngest at preschool without having to bundle all 4 kids into the car (we were homeschooling so she was home during the day). But I would never leave her for more than an hour or when I wasn't going to be in town. I wanted her to be able to call me and say "Mom, there's trouble!" and even if the car broke down I could walk home in time to take care of the trouble. We live in a very safe neighborhood and we know just about everybody on our street (yay for block parties) so even if I couldn't get home there would be many resources for her to draw on. But this last summer we came home from a date, for which we had hired a babysitter because it was more than an hour and we were going 40 miles away, and discovered that our little 11 year old had gone out on a babysitting job of her own while we were gone, to watch the neighbors' 1 year old. No doubt she figured it was better to ask forgiveness than permission! When she got back we had a discussion about rules about babysitting for others. We decided that she could sit for people we knew in the neighborhood if one of her parents was home as a backup, and when she turned 12 she could get full babysitting privileges and sit for people outside our immediate neighborhood or without one of her parents at home. We bought her an online babysitting course, which she whipped through and passed with flying colors. She's turning 12 next week and she's already got a weekly babysitting gig. Her next youngest sibling is 9 and has Asperger's Syndrome. I wouldn't leave him home alone until he's at least 12 and probably will not be able to leave him in charge till he's 14. He gets focused on his Legos and doesn't notice the rest of the world is there.

The community center babysitting course in our area was geared toward 10 year olds. Once we took the class, we were babysitting for neighbors, cousins, and sibs. I'm hoping to wait until my oldest is at least 12, but we'll see what happens. She's already responsible enough to sit in front of Sesame Street while her 14 month old sister is next to her in a playpen and I'm in the shower across the hallway (with the door open). She helpfully calls me if baby starts crying. I'm not sure which one is louder in those situations, but it works out well. :)

This one made me laugh a bit. I was latch-key kid starting in 1st grade. My sister who was 4 years older than me was sort of around. I don't recall anything really ever happening to myself or the house or anything. I actually began babysitting when was 11. I don't know for sure when I'll leave my kids home alone, but they are both pretty well behaved, I wouldn't freak out to leave my 6yr old home alone for a few mins if I had to run to the store really quick.

that's an easy one. In NZ the legal age for leaving a child at home alone, or letting them babysit is 14

I know that at that age (age 6 or 7) I might as well have been home alone - when I spent summers at my grandmother's house. She worked so my great-grandma took care of me, which consisted of watching soap operas and napping all day...ah the life. But I totally could have taken care of myself at that age. And did. I think it's a matter of you knowing your child best and what they can handle And Jessica, I LOVE the comment about "this is one of those issues that you whisper about" classic!