Home alone: At what age is it OK to leave kids behind?

The kids are out of school. So now what? If both parents
have to work, that means summer camp or day camp, and
that’s expensive. It got me wondering at what age is it
OK to leave my 10-year-old son home alone. And is it
even legal?

He’d rather sit at home watching TV, playing video games
and riding his bike than going to a daily summer camp that
feels like school or day care.

But I’m not sure if he’s ready. And I certainly don’t
want to go to jail for leaving a child unattended, even in
my home.

I assumed there is a state law that spells out the age at
which I can leave a child home alone. I was wrong.

“Surprisingly we have laws about almost everything you
could imagine, but there is no law either state or federal
that determines when a child can be left safely home
alone,” says Kris Case with the Washington Department of
Social and Health Services.

Only two states have laws that set an age on when it’s
OK to leave a child home alone.

She says it’s not even against the law to leave a 5-year-
old home alone, unless that puts the child in danger.
And that danger is up to interpretation.

Parents make a lot of hard choices, you know, I’m going to
slip out for five minutes and in that five minutes
something can happen so err on the side of caution.

Case says, in my case, 10 might be a little young to
try it.

“12-years-old is about the time kids can safely be left at
home for short periods of time. But you know your own
child better than anybody else. You know what your home
situation is if you feel that your child is mature enough
and has enough skills to be home. Try it for a short
period of time.”

Case has a checklist that you need to consider. Can the
child fix a meal? How about handle an emergency? Does
your child know all of your phone numbers and the names of
neighbors?

After some careful thought, it looks like my son has one
more summer of camp and going to grandma’s. But I might
try going to the store for 10 minutes to see how he does.