UPDATE: A new report has found the number of parents leaving their kids home alone in the school holidays has increased over the last 10 years.
Research from Melbourne University’s Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey revealed that the average age for parents to leave their kids at home alone before and after school is 10.
The average age most people leave their kids at home without supervision in the school holidays is 11.
Dr Sarah Wise, from Melbourne University’s department of social work, told Fairfax that the reason parents were leaving their kids home at a younger age than before is that child care programs also don’t match up with work schedules and are too expensive for a lot of parents.
There has been a lot of talk in the media in recent years about how young is too young to be left alone at home. This is a post Mamamia contributor Kate Hunter wrote about how the law states no specific age that children can be left alone – because all families and situations are different…
I was probably about nine.
I had two younger brothers and a little sister and my mum (who didn’t work when we were small) would sometimes pop out to the shops and leave me and my sister, just 16 months older, ‘in charge’. Nothing happened.
Sometimes she’d go next door for a cup of tea and a chat with our neighbour Gail and if we were happily playing or watching TV at home, she’d leave us there, saying, “Yell out if anything happens.” Nothing happened.
I loved being home alone. When mum went back to work and I was sick, but not too sick for her to stay home with me, those days were gold. I’d watch Beauty and The Beast, then Days Of Our Lives and eat Milo from the can (for medicinal purposes). And nothing happened.
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I was about 6/7 when I was left alone to get myself and my younger sister (5) to and from school. Our single dad would leave for work at 7am- waking us up as he left and from there it was up to us to get ready for school. We knew it was time to go when a certain cartoon finished. I was expected to get us breakfast, make lunch and make sure that my sister was dressed and ready. We would then walk the 20 mins to school. Now, I look at my friends' kids who are about the same age and I think that it's so young and my mind boggles that the parents complain that they are consistently late for work/school because their children can't/won't dress themselves! Yes, we were given greater responsibility but we were never late, we just did what was expected of us. There was a great sense of ownership for the small choices we made. The only downside to it, as far as I can tell, is that now, whenever the doorbell rings, my internal response is 'we're not home!"
I remember walking home once a week in grade 5 (9/10 yo), meeting up with an older girl from our street about halfway home. The other afternoons I was at after school care. But as soon as year 7 (11/12 yo) rolled around, it was walking and bus to and from school, with about 2-2.5 hours alone in the arvo before Mum got home. School holidays I would often be at friends' houses but it was no issue if I started home alone. I am an only child of a single Mum, so independence was learnt from a very young age - I am so thankful for this! It has served me well in my teenage and young adult life!!