Hotels and kids, what do you do at night?

[shrunkenhead]

Bit of a long story, so I'll cut to the chase, do parents really leave kids asleep in hotel rooms while they go for drinks/meal downstairs? Thought all this stopped after the Madeleine abduction. Reason I ask is friend works in a hotel and asked why a baby monitor was by parents' bed when they were in same room and it was explained to her that parents take other monitor with them. Does this happen a lot? Is this deemed acceptable today?

[Enjoyingmycoffee1981]

Always a suite with two rooms or self catering. Works well.

It's not the abduction risk that concerns me most, as the risk is very small. It is leaving young children on their own, and what they could get up to and all the ways they could harm themselves. Added to which, they could wake up and be scared, bad dream, vomiting. Meanwhile you're out tucking in to a nice meal and drinking wine. Why??? How??? How can you even relax and enjoy yourself knowing your child could be drug, pain, ill and you have bugger all idea about it.

[ilovecolinfirth]

I hide in the bathroom with a glass of wine, waiting for them to drop off, then sneak in to watch tv or read a book with a very dim light. Maybe order room service, but never leaving them.

[weatherall]

We spent a night in a hotel with DCs a couple of months ago.

We got in about 10

[kslatts]

Our dd's are older now, but we used to just take them out with us, some nights we would eat early and then dh and I would have a drink on the balcony.

[weatherall]

Pm after dinner and a walk.

Put a film on. Kids fell asleep.

We read for a while.

Fine.

If it was a holiday is keep then up til late then sleep late.

Who wants to be woken before 9am on holiday?

[Downamongtherednecks]

IF, in the highly unlikely event that there were a fire, I doubt the hotel staff are going to dare be bothered to try to stop parents going up to grab their children. Pre or post-Madeleine McCann, the risks of "something happening" to my dc in a locked hotel room are too small to worry me. Yes, I leave them alone while I pop to the shops too.

[MaryWestmacott]

Weatherall - I'd love to get them to sleep in by letting them stay up late, sadly, my DCs still get up at ungodly hours regardless of how late I let them stay up. Am terribly jealous if you don't have early birds tweeting in your ear "come on Mummy, let's see if the restaurant have pancakes!" at 7am (having crawled into our bed at around 6am). Even more depressing, how few sunloungers weren't already reserved when we were going to breakfast at the earliest the hotel restaurant opened...

[Daisychain5]

What Madeleine abduction?

[jdandietcoke]

They may have been able to see the balcony but to walk there they'd have to leave the resort bit and walk round on the main road. There is a gap between the edge if the resort (where the pool and bar is) and where apartments are. Also the other side of apartment is on the road. So it's quite close as crow flies (although still with 2 pools and tennis courts in between bar and apartment) but you couldn't get there quickly

[shrunkenhead]

My dd is now 5 so buggies etc wouldn't work, I'd be scared of the monitor not working/being out of reach of signal etc etc and like others have said not so much concerned of abduction (but this is obviously a newly added fear) but of the anonymity of hotels and staff, people come and go so often (my hotel-worker friend can verify) cleaners/waiters/etc aren't crb checked and often have cards to all rooms.

[LoveBeingInTheSun]

Jdand how did I not know what, even crime watch didn't make that clear

[Rosa]

When little took buggy and they slept in that or we had a suite so kids in 1 room us in another with film / wine / balcony - before i pads.
last winter we did a break and there was entertainment in the hotel some nights we stayed , some we diddn't . generally had a nap after lunch if we had a late night.
out of term time we build up later nights and after lunch naps as its too hot to be out all day anyway so we stay out later. After a week they get into that routine fine.
We find we don't need 'bar and adults chill time ' whilst on holiday ....not any more . Might do in the future but are just happy with how it is.

[shrunkenhead]

Mary, I'm with you, regardless of the time I keep dd up she's still up at 6am the next day and probably grumpy with it, so keeping her up late in hope of a lie-in doesn't work for us. She thrives on routine wherever we are, so it's in everyone's best interest to keep to it!

[jdandietcoke]

I know. If you look at photos it looks like it's part of resort but there's a path between the edge of their apartment and the resort.

I'll try adding a picture to explain.

If you look between complex entrance and the apartment you can see a path between bushes. They would not be able to get from apartment to tapas bar without going onto the road and going through the complex entrance.

[VioletHare]

We have left the dc in a (locked) room asleep and then gone downstairs to have a meal or drink, I think twice, using our own baby monitor. Both times the dc were about 1 and 3. They were both in the UK, in small BnB's with no more than 10 rooms. So really no different to being downstairs in a house.

I would never leave them in any sort of hotel or resort, not even to go downstairs.

[Notso]

I would only do self catering for a long holiday for this very reason.
On short breaks we have
sat in the bathroom drinking and playing cards,
Paid for a suite,
Made a den to watch TV in,
Taken it in turns to go to the bar,
Paid for adjoining rooms,
Gone to sleep the same time as the kids,
Sat in the dark texting each other.

I have done the baby monitor thing once in the small hotel we got married in, our family made up most of the guests and everyone was checking as they nipped up to their rooms.
I wouldn't in a big one, just like I wouldn't leave my kids in bed at home and go out for a meal at the pub two streets away.

[atos35]

It wouldn't even cross my mind to do this although dp and I have been away on holiday pre dc's with couples who have kids that did do this and we were quite perplexed as to why anyone would want to take their kids on holiday and then leave them alone in a strange room (or just as bad with a complete stranger babysitting them) while they went off for dinner. Each to their own but I would worry that my dc's would wake up and be frightened and scared, even just for a few minutes until we got back would be too long IMO. Every holiday I've been on it's been deemed perfectly acceptable to take the kids out to eat in the evening, it's always very relaxed. We then go back around 9pm and just sit on the balcony while kids are sleeping.

[MaryWestmacott]

atos - do you really think having a babysitter is just as bad as leaving them alone?!

[thewavesofthesea]

We would never do it. Last holiday stayed in one room with a balcony; boys stayed up a bit later than normal (aged nearly 4 and 16months at the time) and then we often all crashed at the same time. Sat out on balcony and took turns to go to the bar for all inclusive drinks :-)

Doing SC cottage in Uk this time. Will be more comfortable I'm sure!

[EveDallasRetd]

We've always taken DD out with us. When she was younger she went to sleep in her buggy, older between two chair and since 6 or 7 she's had more energy for late nights than we have!

[Annietheacrobat]

Villa, take them out or lie in the dark with wine and the iPad.

[shockinglybadteacher]

Er, I'm kind of laughing at the fire thing I done security, we had protocol. Staff wouldn't just leave guests to frizzle.

In fact, you being present at the time wouldn't particularly aid your children, especially if you are prone to panic. Unless you have special fire retardant properties, that is.

[andsmile]

Short break hotels

We all eat together (aged 2 and 8) in either an early restaurant or in the room (could be our own food or room service).

We take movies/programms downloaded onto the Sky Go app thing (DH does this) and the kids watch them before sleeping and we may watch something with a few drinks.

If we on holiday its usually self catering and we get them to bed albeit a little later and sit and have a drink!

[LadyCelia]

We'd never leave the DC alone. Either we get a babysitter from the hotel (OK, we've done this once at the same hotel we go to every year!) or get a suite & stay in with a bottle of wine & room service once DC have gone to bed.

[MidniteScribbler]

Admittedly I did this last week on holidays, but we were staying in cabins and our friends were staying in the one next door so we put DS to bed in mine, then went to their cabin for supper. The entire complex was empty other than us, and we sat with the door open so we could see our cabin. The place is 30 minutes from any sort of civilisation, and we left the dogs in the room with him (which is permitted in the place we stayed), so on the very remote chance someone was around they would have let us know. He slept while we had a drink (or two!) and a chat. He was no further away than he would be if I put him to bed in his room then went and sat in the lounge room at home. I would never do this at a hotel or any other type of accommodation place where you didn't have line of sight, but this was a bit different.