Before I became a parent I thought 8 was a good age to start leaving kids alone. Like most parents out there now and some before, both of my parents had to work and my brother and I would walk home by age 7. And would wait for a couple of hours for our mom to get home and cook dinner. Now that I am a parent, I become so concerned about leaving kids under the age of 15 home alone. But I do think it's just me being over protective and I feel there is many of us out there. And looking at my oldest I do continue to believe logically that my son will be ready to stay home alone by age 7. We just need to ingrave the dangers that are out there in our childrens heads. Let them now the concequences of opening the door to strangers or letting anyone know that they are home alone. I think we have become a nation of whimps not just because, but because of what we see happens in the news. Other parents in need to work and can't offered a sitter and the ever increasing preditors out there just waiting to see what opportunity they get to abuse our little ones. Even with a close eye on our children preditors have found that second to prey on our children and that is the reason why we have become so concerned about letting our younguns do anything without supervision.