To wonder if this was bad parenting on my part

[angelicstar]

Ok - I feel that this was a bit of a bad thing to do so appreciate your opinions.

DS is 2 and wakes very early each morning (usually 5ish). If I leave him he screams blue murder and wakes DD. If I bring him into bed with me he trys to drag me out of bed, jumps on me etc.

I am not a morning person and DH is away so had no one to help.

So this morning at about 6ish I took him downstairs and put him infront of cbeebies and then went back to bed for an hour to try and feel more human.

Downstairs is all childsafe, front and back doors are locked, kitchen door closed, stairgate on. I didn't give him anything to eat or drink so no choking risk. Also kept my bedroom door open so could hear any goings on downstairs although he is a telly addict and so pretty much guaranteed just to sit there if the TV is on.

Was this a terrible thing to do? I feel bad as I should have been watching him but I was just so so very tired.

I wouldn't let a 2 yo on their own while I was up in bed asleep, no.

When my children were younger I kept a spare duvet downstairs and napped on the sofa.

I did, and sometimes still do, but I slept on the sofa. DS wouldn't have been happy being left alone but coped with me dozing on sofa when he used to wake that early.

Another who thinks sofa snooze is better....what if he pulled the tv or something over when he climbed up?

My sisters DC climbed onto the ktchen cabinets at a similar age and got their iron supplements, swallowed them all and had to have their stomachs pumped...another time they ate a lot of frozen foods....

I sometime snooze on the sofa, but I try not to as ds aged 6 is a nightmare and will be into everything ( he is austitic)

I did with DS, can't remember how old he was when I started, but it was before he turned 3.

I knew that all he would do was watch tv and maybe raid the fridge for yoghurts! I think you know what your own child is capable of.

I've done this lots of time. I never fall back to sleep properly, just doze and I can hear everything. Like Bertie says, you know what your child is capable of, and in my case the worst that would happen would be raiding the fridge for frubes!

I have a TV in my room for this, rule is sit at bottom of bed, if I am exhausted (but its not my favourite thing to do), i have a really old TV and DVD player in their room, no ariel, and I stick a film on.

Otherwise, Id get no sleep,and I need sleep.

its always important to remember that the worst parents are the seriously sleep deprived parents

I wouldn't leave him downstairs but I would (and do) doze on the sofa. Not quite such good sleep though.

I did this with dd1 when she was 2 and a half. In fact, I taught her to go into the living room, switch on the tv, and use the remote to get the right channel (she used to come and see me first). It's the only way of coping with the sleep deprivation sometimes.

it's fine, much better than 8 years of getting up at 5am, sometimes 4.30 - arggggggh! I would have gone insane if I hadn't gone back to bed some mornings. Luckily DS (now 8) sleeps in until 6.30 now...

I don't think it's bad parenting, but I would (and have) probably have just snoozed on the sofa or put something on my laptop for my DS (2.5) to watch whilst I dozed. Although I remember doing this with Peppa Pig a while back and every time an episode finished he would jump on me shouting 'more'! I was so tired I actually went back to sleep every time. 5 minute chunks of sleep - aaagrgh!

I do this but DS is now 4, I used to do it when he was 3 but I can trust him not to do anything he shouldn't. DD is going to be another matter.

My house is all open from my stairs into the front room ao I could hear everything and we have a gate across the kitchen so in the unlikely event of him going in there, I immediately hear the gate open.

I also have M.E. so the early mornings are a complete killer and I can't cope with getting up at that time. If I need a sleep in the afternoons I kip on the sofa.

I do, but I live in a very small flat. I think If I lived in a house I would probably have an upstairs TV or computer he could watch on.

oh God DS used to do this all the time! Thomas the sodding Tank Engine got me through that period of my life. i did sleep on the sofa though, you can actually rest rather than just doze that way.

In agreement with RainbowSpiral here - it would be worse to be half asleep all day.....

Disagree with being upstairs in bed so another sofa voter.

This is why I luff the iPad, dd 2.8 has games apps on there and can even log into and choose films/programmes from Netflix while smuggled in bed with us.

The apps are also skill building/educational so I am actually expanding her brain capacity while sleeping, I'm an amazing parent if you think about it

Shame dd2 (4 wks) doesn't respect the power of the iPad :(