I was allowed to ride the city bus to the mall (about half an hour away) to see my friends when I was 11 years old, which was also the year that I started babysitting for the neighbourhood kids. In the province that I live in in Canada, 10 is the age where children can legally be left alone. Thanks for the food for thought! Now that I am grown, I can't imagine letting little ones out of my sight, but at the time, my mom put a lot of trust in me and I valued that from her.