In your case, with you ex... check the state statues.

Typically, I would say 10ish... depending upon maturity level.

Stay at home when you ran to the grocery store - 16

Get off the bus and be home alone for 10 minutes or so. - Never considering where I live

Get off the bus and walk down the street to the house where the step parent is waiting.- Never considering where I live

Stay home sick alone. - 16

Meet their buddy at the end of your street at the park. - Never considering where I live

Ride or walk to their friends house a block away. - Never considering where I live

That's very sad Monchichi.

I do not think I can comment on this..... ya all will call cps and I will be locked up... oh wait I'm in different country..

Stay at home alone, regardless what i went to do... or the time of day, - Deigma stayed alone at home since age 4..
food and drinks was place low enough for him to reach and high enough for the dogs to leave it, Deigma had a chair he used to reach

Walk down the street - since age 5 - to play with kids on the block and they went to the park, about 2 blocks from my house, and they used their bicycles to go to the local corner shop to buy sweets and cool drinks, all on their own

|Stay home sick alone - since age 7 when he went to school, 95% of the time he was faking, cause he did not learn his spelling words/did his home work or what ever... It was punishment, believe me, disgusting watery chicken broth and no TV... He only pulled this stunt 4 times in all 12 years of schooling

Deigma had his first phone when he went to boarding school age 16... not before. He knew the rules and he had a watch, you can play around but be at home 17:00 or else..... and we had certain roads he had to use, still today, in case I have to go and look for him, once he used a different route and he did not enjoy the punishment...

It all depends on maturity and their ability to know/follow the safety rules for me.

SS is 11 with, Autism, he's allowed to stay home while I run to the grocery store or pick up BD and last week, he was home for a few hours after school while I was working. I have family all around my house-my only neighbors are family members. I make arraignments for him to be checked on every 45 minutes or so-so he's home alone, and has gotten off the bus alone (which is a van that drives him to the door).

I would not allow SS to walk down the street. He doesn't have enough road-safety/awareness skills yet.

I wouldn't leave him at home alone when he is sick. I work from home so this is NBD for me.

I wouldn't let him walk to the end of the street. I wouldn't let him walk to the mailbox without supervision-but that's SS. So no going a block away either.

Other children: I would feel like these independence things could start happening in baby steps around 11/12.

Assuming a normal responsible kid, probably 10ish

when i was a kid, at age 5 i was walking alone a half-mile to the bus-stop. i'd also go outside for hours at a time. so that covers most of your proposed situations. however with staying home sick alone, that probably didnt happen until i was past the age of 10.

with the boys, i dont think dh let them stay alone until somewhere around 12. well, oss and lurch. kaos is still not allowed to stay home alone for any more than 10 minutes. but walking down the street to or with a friend - he's been doing that for several years.

Stay at home when you ran to the grocery store.

I think it was maybe when the OSD was about 11 and the YSD was about 7. I think with a particularly mature child, and a very short trip (30 minutes).. you could maybe leave a 9 YO alone. My parents certainly did when we were younger. But we lived on an army base, so I guess that may have been more secure. In our case the YSD was actually more advanced than her older sister. She was a responsible and trustworthy child.. so it was almost more like we waited for her to be 7 (acted 12) to watch out for her 11 yo (acted sister.

Get off the bus and be home alone for 10 minutes or so. This wasn't intentional really, but when the YSD lived with us full time when she was in 2nd grade, sometimes the bus would beat us home. They wouldn't let her off the bus unless a parent was home, but the kid was pretty smart. She would get off the bus and wave towards the house like she saw us (we had about 4 acres). The bus driver was never the wiser. Occasionally, if we KNEW we couldn't be there in time, we would call our neighbor to come up to the gate and meet the bus. Honestly, at 7 the kid was capable of taking care of herself then, but I am sure that the authorities would have frowned upon it. Don't get me wrong, we didn't intentionally leave her there alone.. but traffic, work schedules can make you later.. or bus is earlier.

Get off the bus and walk down the street to the house where the step parent is waiting. Would depend on kid and the neighborhood. I guess that if the kid was 10 or so, and the neighborhood was safe and the step parent knew they were coming and would call to confirm that that the kid got there all right.

Stay home sick alone. I would say 12 here. Sick is different. Kid might need help during the day.

Meet their buddy at the end of your street at the park. 12.. but maybe a little younger if it is a particularly safe area.

Ride or walk to their friends house a block away. 10ish

We started letting DD stay at home alone this summer, when she was around 10.5.

SD--almost 12--still isn't allowed to stay home alone by her BM, but we have no concerns about doing it. She's Red Cross certified as a babysitter, too. BM is stupid.

We started by letting the girls take the dogs for walks, ride their bikes in our suburban neighborhood, and by leaving them to pick up takeout or go to the grocery store and worked our way up.

Stay at home when you ran to the grocery store - Age 9. Grocery store was short distance away..gone for maybe 20 minutes.

Get off the bus and be home alone for 10 minutes or so. My kids had to walk to school (less than 1 KM). Youngest was 5 oldest was 8. they walked together.

Get off the bus and walk down the street to the house where the step parent is waiting. N/A

Stay home sick alone. Depending on how sick...10

Meet their buddy at the end of your street at the park. Age 8

Ride or walk to their friends house a block away. Age 8

They stopped going to the sitter after school when my oldest reached age 11. They would be home for roughly two hours alone until I got home from work.

By age 13 both kids were capable of staying home all day...or evening if I went out.... by themselves

I'll tell you what ticked me the hell of last week. I have four kids and there ages are 2, 7, 9, and 11. I had gotten my elementary aged kids from school and they were doing homework and eating snacks. My middle schooler gets off the bus at 0350 and it was raining. I grabbed my two year old and literally went two blocks to the front of my neighborhood to grab my 11 year old. I was gone minutes!!!!!!!!! My 7 and 9 year old I consider responsible and so I left them at home. I got home to find a neighbor's black car in my driveway and my 7 year old in her back seat.

This neighbor, and I've blogged about her before, you may recall is the one that passed out in an upstairs bedroom and I couldn't wake her up for hours!!!! (Ever since then I've worried about my neighbor having a drug problem).

The neighbor says to me, "I got a parent teacher conference for both Son and daughter at the beginning of the week. Both don't turn in their homework. I told them if they don't turn in their homework, they can't have their ipads for the whole weekend. They didn't turn in their homework. The ipads have been confiscated. Kayden has been in her room and throwing a temper tantrum and won't quit crying. I told her we could go to Publix and I'd buy her $5 worth of candy if she'll quit crying and she wants your DD7 (her bestie) to go. "

So in the few minutes it took me to go to the front of the neighborhood to get DD11 and drive back, the neighbor had come over and procured my daughter and had her in the back seat and they were going to go to Publix. No one asked me. Heck no one even told me. They were just going to do it.

Now you know my DD7 has high blood pressure and a possible weight issue and she isn't allowed to go and procure $5 worth of candy and the fact that this lady that passed out unresponsive in my home back in May grabbed my kid without asking was highly, highly alarming to me!!!!!!!!

so I've had to completely rethink the whole, just leave my 7 and 9 year old alone for 5 mins to grab my 11 year old. They showed me that they won't call or even text and say, "hey, it's it okay if I run to the store.. Or my mom will be right back with my sister in just two minutes and let's wait to see what she said. " No they didn't!!!!!!!!

What has happened to us and our society?

I understand the fear of abduction, the media makes so much of it and it's terrifying to think you kid can be grabbed from their front yard or off their bike while going to the store, but have things really changed that much in 20 - 30 - 40 years?

I'm almost 50 and in grade one I ate my breakfast, left my house, walked 2 blocks, crossed a very busy street and took a 10 min bus ride to school. After school I went home, made a snack and either played or watched TV till my parents got home around 5 pm!
I spent my summers on my bike who knows where in the neighbourhood or at the swimming pool. All my friends were the same.

No one was abducted, no one died or was hurt making their own food.
One friend got hit by a car on her bike, the driver took her to the hospital and her parents thanked him for taking such good care of her! She broke her leg and he bought her a new bike. No one sued, no one freaked out.

When oldest was in grade three and the youngest was in grade one the two of them walked the three blocks school together. They went to a place after school because people would have freaked out if I'd let them come home on days I was working.
At 10 years old, I let my oldest come home but the younger one 7 had to stay in after care. I didn't feel good about him listening to his older brother. The following year, they were both home alone as I had to go back to full time work.

It's no wonder these kids dont launch, they have no idea how to take care of themselves. And we've made them terrified to try.

Stay at home when you ran to the grocery store 13

Get off the bus and be home alone for 10 minutes or so. 11

Get off the bus and walk down the street to the house where the step parent is waiting. 8

Stay home sick alone. 14

Meet their buddy at the end of your street at the park. 14

Ride or walk to their friends house a block away. 14

Stay at home when you ran to the grocery store:
The SDs were comfortable around age 10 to do this.
They had a phone available in case they needed it (more for reassurance)

Get off the bus and be home alone for 10 minutes or so.
SD12 was doing this at age 11, she had to get off the school bus and get home alone, and wait there alone till DH got home. Not an issue for her.
However, locking the freaking front door is still an issue.
Don't get me started.

Get off the bus and walk down the street to the house where the step parent is waiting.
See above.
SD10 will be doing the same routine next year at age 11.

Stay home sick alone.
12. DH is ok leaving SD12 home alone if she's got a simple cold.
If she's got the flu he'll stay.

Meet their buddy at the end of your street at the park.
9/10. I worked on this with DH. We live in a great neighborhood with lots of places to go (park, waterfront, greenspace, quiet streets. GO PLAY.
The only caveat we give them is to 1) let us know you are leaving our property and 2) let us know where you are going. Gives them independence and personal responsibility and they love it because they can't do it at BMs.

Ride or walk to their friends house a block away.
See above.