I can relate! It is so hard to balance  being a working mother, especially in the summer!

The rules here are pretty much the same (for my 12 year old) With the exception of his his best friend who lives in the nieghborhood and is the ONLY kid allowed over & vise versa...

It is more complicated with my 6 year old, who obviously cannot stay home unsupervised!  For several weeks I was actually having to take him to work with me several hours a week! Not fun for him, and not very productive for me!

This week though, I found a wonderful, teenage neighbor to watch him 3 days a week!  She is great, she is very active, and plays sports with him, takes him to the park, walks the dog, etc. What a relief!

I'm not at that point yet - DD's only 6, and I'm home with her.  If I continue on with teaching for my income, I'll pretty much have the same days off as she does, especially if I'm working at her school.   

When I was a kid, I stayed home alone.  I'm trying to remember what the rules were when I was in 7th-9th grade..... it's hard to remember.  I know that I did a summer enrichment program at UCI the summers before 7th and 8th grade, so that was one way my parents kept me busy, stimulated and supervised while they worked.

My mom was a SAHM so it was never an issue.  When my boys were younger we had them attend a summer camp at the local community center, but now that they're older we like saving the $$$ by letting them stay home.