i know i cant leave my baby home alone, but....

[bejeezus]

What do you think of this...dd2 18months old asleep, ill in her bed. I want to nick to the shop with dd1 to get some milk....we can ne there and back within 5 minutes...shop at end of road round corner...

What IF I lock the house up and tell someone I'm doing it (neighbour, or if not in someone ny phone...friend or parents). So if I haven't told them I'm back within say, 7 minutes, they can panic and rescue dd2 from house

?

thank you MrsTrellisofsouthwales,

I started it when I had a ten year old, he and his friends were always asking for extra jobs, as they were always running to the shops for myself and elderly neighbours, so to get them from under my feet, keep them occupied, I thought I would roll it out,

when other elderly folk around the village commented that they were envious of arraignment we decided to open it up to a wider audience,

it keeps them busy, they make quite a bit of money, even if it's only fifty pence a run, mostly they get a pound,and some try to be too generous, the village shops do well out of it,everyone is very happy

It's spread to quite a few other villages, and is proving to be very popular.

I would be very tempted in this situation but would never do it. I'd take my baby/toddler/small child with me. Or in dire emergency and if I had no-one to call on, I'd call the shop and ask if anyone who works there could run over with the milk for £5 (or something).

No, either ask a neighbour if you can borrow some milk, or if they could run up there for you. I've done this for people I didn't know to help out.

I wouldn't leave ds alone sleeping and he's six! I just don't understand this mentality people have that it's okay to leave little kids alone. The need for milk is never that urgent to risk it!

It's illegal to put a child in danger, but there isn't an age where leaving them alone is legal/illegal. It's up to you to make a judgement call.

Really glad you have such a nice neighbour, but here's a thought for the future:

When I was 9mths and db was 20mths my mum left us asleep to pop to the shop quickly, electric wiring went on fire, I was rescued just in time, db died. It's NEVER worth it and bad things DO happen.

oh god, laura, that is so so sad :(

Ask neighbour to sit in your house or phone the shop and ask them to send someone round with it.

Put in buggy asleep or wait until Wakes and pop in buggy

Don't risk

How badly do you need the milk? Can you order a taxi to pick some up and bring it? I've done this when I needed medicine picked up from the pharmacy when I couldn't leave the house with sick kids....

I would have had mixed feelings about this until the recent explosion at that house in Oldham. The mum had only popped into the garden to hang washing out and her poor child died in the blast.

You just never know... that mother will never forgive herself.

oneofmyturns but does that mean you will not hang your washing out, whilst your kids are asleep now?

I would hope that the poor mother who lost her child in that blast will have the sense to realise that there is nothing she could have done. Nothing at all.

She has nothing to forgive herself for, ffs.

That poor woman with the gas explosion would have been dead too if she wasn't outside. At least her other children haven't lost their mother - what a ridiculous suggestion :(

i think oneofmyturns was simply highlighting the fact that you never know what will happen, rather than saying the mum was to blame for nipping into the garden to hang out washing! And how quickly something can go wrong that you never in a million years think could happen to you

Would you really send your 7 year old to the shop

I would leave the 7 year old in charge and on phone to granny for the duration!

Shemade we used to do that for booze when we were younger and underage!

No no no
Especially if she is ill!
If you lock the door and go to the shop, telling the neighbour - how does she get in to rescue DD if you are not back in 7 mins if you have the keys?

I would if the shop was very near. I've been known to go to the postbox, which isn't that much further than the end of my garden.

This morning dtds were asleep in their cots napping after a bad night but dd1 needed to go to nursery so I carried them to the car and put them in car seats. It's a pain as they were then grumpy for lunch but even though nursery is very close I couldn't leave them.

Has someone yet made the classic MN-this-sort-of-thread comment that they have a garden longer than the distance to the shop in the OP, so what's the difference?

OP, I'm glad you got it sorted without leaving a poorly 18 mo alone in the house. I am not that risk-adverse myself, but I wouldn't have left her myself. Oh, and my own 18 mo has just this week learnt to climb out of his cot when he's not restricted by a grobag. Took us all by surprise. The second time he managed it, he was almost halfway down the stairs at 2am when we caught him.