To leave Dd alone in hotel room?

[Shelby2010]

More of a WWYD really. We are going to be staying with Dd (18mths) in a hotel next month on holiday & then overnight for a wedding in July. How safe do MNetters feel it is to leave their sleeping DC in the room with either the listening service or a normal baby monitor while eating in the hotel restaurant or attending an evening reception?

Am I being very PFB to worry about how many members of staff could access the room (especially with programable card keys)? The fact that hotels do offer a listening service suggests that many parents are ok with this. I'm torn between thinking I'm paranoid and thinking that they always tell you not to leave valuables in you room except in the safe..... Help!

Let her have a late night and fall asleep in her pram as a one off. Much better idea than leaving her unsupervised.

Not in a million years! Just because the chances of something happening are tiny, doesn't mean it won't happen to you. Just no! Plus ds would want to be at the party/ meal even when he was 18 months old

Please don't do this OP.

Hotel rooms typically have about 10 keys cut that will open the door. The card style are just magnets that can be reprogrammed. You just don't know who can get into that room. And yes, the fire risk is another danger.

It's not worth it. Could you take a grandparent with you?

We went away last week with our 10 MO.

We ate a little later as a family (about 7:30 ish) then went back to the room, put DD to bed and drank the wine we brought with us!

It's not fair to leave them, nor is it safe.

I can't believe this thought even crosses people's minds

18 months bloody ridiculous

Imagine the horror, the heart stopping moment you get to your room and can't see her. Was it worth it?

Was it hell

I always used to take mine and let them sleep in the buggy or sit on my lap: I never found it that difficult, and far far preferable to a child waking alone in a strange place and being frightened.

I think the advice to treat a baby like any other valuable is sound: I didn't leave mine in places where I wouldn't have left my purse.

I am sure the McCanns did not think they WBU five years ago. Let her stay up and fall asleep in her pushchair

Nope I wouldn't and I also wouldn't be happy with a babysitter arranged by the hotel as a) I wouldn't know that person b) don't know how the hotel check them out...............

Usng listening service/baby monitor......what if, in the ( very unlikely) event of a fire. How would you feel if you coudln't get her out?

Sorry a bit of catastrophinc thinking, I know. But I know if it ewas me and that ( or anything else) happened I would not be able to live with myself.

I'm finding it hard to believe this is real. An 18 month old? Seriously? My daughter at 18 months used to cry her heart out when she awoke from a day nap upstairs. I would never dream of leaving my children alone like that. If you can afford the holiday then fork out for a babysitter too. Some people never learn.

Sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings at a very young age will give them massive benefits when it comes to, say, their first Beavers/Cubs sleep-over. The home-sick kids will be sobbing at Owl at 10pm

ffs.... how ridiculous!

sleepovers at a friends, or at grannys house might help that... waking up ALONE in an unfamiliar room, with nobody near you is not the same thing at all!

Good god are you mad?? Never ever in a million years.

For many years in Portugal (!) we would hire the receptionist from the complex we stayed on, to babysit while we went out. It cost more than the dinner...about 20 ? an hour. The children were about 3 and 5.

I have used a monitor service as well in a small hotel.

For those saying they check every 20 minutes - where is the relaxation in that?! You are either walking to and from the room or clock watching.

I wouldn't do it. Fire would be my main concern or the dc's waking and being frightened without me or DH. We either don't take them with us or accept that one of us will be having an early night.

I would just take a buggy and go out with that. At the wedding there will be so much going on and so many friends and relatives there that they will be passed around and stimulate before they crash out fully. You will also benefit by getting a long lie the next day.

I always found eating out with the kids on holiday when they were little really lovely. Still do now they're older.

Don't get me wrong, I love going out to dinner / away with just adults too. But if I'm away with the kids, I enjoy eating with the kids.

Agree with WeeDom - as I am sure many mumsnetters do but dare't admit it . I have left my DS in a hotel room on his own (no monitor even); statistically it is far less dangerous that getting in a car and driving but most of us do that without a second thought.

I would never advocate anyone doing something they are not comfortable with, and OP I think you have clearly made the right decision, but I am totally amazed at the hysterical nature of this thread in terms of some of the responses.

People are saying things like even if there was a 1 in 100,000,000 chance why take the risk. Well most people get in a car every day and there is sure as hell a much greater risk than that, that you would be killed. People take measured risks every day.

I have been known to leave my DDs in a hotel room, it was a small hotel (10 rooms) that DH's family had hired out the whole of for a family party, we used a monitor and it was fine. On the night of the party we kept the DDs up till 9:30, they went to bed and I then sat with SIL on a sofa in one of the communal areas near the stairs drinking some wine and chatting for another hour or so (with a monitor). On another occassion in a different hotel, we had a family room and it was in an annexe not attached to the hotel itself, so we got a babysitter and she sat in the room while the DDs slept in the bunk room off our room, we also ran a monitor between the room next door where SIL's baby daughter was sleeping and the babysitter listened for her and checked every 15 mins. Again all was fine, the babysitter was from an agency and CRB checked.

I personally would not use a listening service and I would always consider whether to leave the DDs on a case by case basis and would only do it if I really felt comfotable.

But examples such as, they could choke, get up and pull something on top of them etc ect all these things could happen in your own home. My DDs have blocked up a bathroom sink while I have been oblivious downstairs. Do you all run monitors at night to listen to every breath and noise while your DCs are asleep one or two floors about you? Would you use a holiday club facility and leave your DCs there where you couldn't see them..?

Anyway as I said I think you have made the right decision for you OP but I think there is a lot of scare mongering on this thread and I think in the right situation this could be perfectly acceptable.

Ragwort great minds

Never ever ever. Sorry OP.

Yes have done it with a smaller baby, it was a v small hotel and we were 2 secs walk from the room.

My biggest concern with an 18mo is can they climb out of the cot. I would absolutely not leave an unrestrained toddler alone in a hotel room.

I'm also very shocked that in the event of a fire, parents would be prevented from collecting their children. I find that impossible to believe.

On threads like this OP it is much usually more divided, I haven't seen one as one-sided as this before!

fgs, selyna