oh, and personally, only recently, within about the last year, I will leave the boys in the car while I run into a convenience store, but the 11 yo is very responsible and cautious. He locks them in after me and waits to unlock when I return. He has a phone so if anything happened he could call for help. I see that as a pretty safe situation. I would never do the same with the 6 yo alone. He's going to have to be 10 (or older, he's not starting out to be near as responsible by nature as his older brother.) before I trust his safety, especially alone.