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I know I stayed home alone (no younger siblings) when I was in middle school (age 10/11) but only because my mom looked and couldn't find options for me. But I think it would really depend on the specific kid.

My parents left us as home as latch key kids out of necessity when we were painfully young. I want to say like 1st grade! I was 7-8 and my brother was 3-4 years old. Our aged grandmother lived within walking distance so I think she was technically able to mosey over slowly if something terrible happened and my mom worked 15 minutes away, but I would never do that with my kids obviously.

We were latch key kids all the way through our childhood but I think the most comfortable groove for everyone was around 12 for me and 8 for my brother (we are 4 years apart).

depends on the kids. I'd leave a 12 year old in charge of an 8 year old but maybe not for a full day, a couple hours while I ran errands would probably be fine.

My son is an only child, so I don't think he'd be able to entertain himself for more than an hour at most, so probably not until well into his teens.

It's not that he couldn't, or I don't want to, but I am not comfortable with him being all alone.

Depends on the kid. I was a "goody-goody" kid - followed direction, bookworm, straight-A student, etc. So my parents left me home alone extended periods of time starting at 12 (also, harder to find camps after age 12 ). But my brother was very rebellious, destructive, and very interested in fire so they pretty much never left him home until he was about 15 and I wasn't there to watch him anymore.

I think it also depends on where you live. My friends and I would stay home alone at her house at age 10 but she lived in the middle of nowhere so there wasn’t really a concern about us getting into mischief or someone breaking in. We now live in a very safe neighborhood and definitely at age 10 I’d feel fine leaving DD Home alone. I would also like the Nest idea, and would of course have her check in. A little older than that (13) and I think we would consider a day camp because my husband got into tons of trouble in middle school in the same neighborhood we live in now.