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?

[AllHailTheBigPurpleOne]

I've done it, and would do it again. Make sure the monitor is on and the room secure. I wouldn't do it in massive complexes where the bar is in a different building or something. But if I'm within 20 seconds of dashing distance....

[Theonlyoneiknow]

We rarely stay in hotels, if do try and get a family room. Either way no, never leave them one will always stay in room with a book or something.

On one occasion however we did. It was a very small hotel that had been booked out for.the whole wedding party we were at. We had both a video and sensor monitor.

[whatever5]

I wouldn't leave them alone in a hotel room, mainly because of the risk of fire. I realise the risk is small and I would take it if it was really really necessary but it's just not is it? I would prefer to keep the children up a bit later than usual.

[idontlikealdi]

Don't stay in hotels for this very reason. Self catering for us so we can actually have some kind of holiday too.

[SocialMediaAddict]

Never had a holiday in a hotel with my 3 kids. I have always booked a villa or apartment.

Occasional night in hotel we let the kids stay up watching films with us. I would never leave them alone in a hotel room. Wouldn't be able to relax and my parenting style is very relaxed borderline negligent

[ChickenFajitasAndNachos]

When my DC were younger we used to book two interconnecting rooms, take them to dinner and go back to the room at about 9 pm. Then we would put the DC to bed and have a bottle of wine on the balcony or read. Very nice it was too.
Now they are teens we are the ones going to bed early!

[turkeyboots]

We let kids stay up later and then we all go to bed at the same time. Won't leave them unsupervised as as a child my parents regularly did and siblings and I would fight, watch inappropriate tv very loudly and leap round the room from one bit of furniture to another! God knows what the hotel thought as we'd always end up in the bar in our pyjamas in tears looking for our parents.

[Tallandgracefulmum]

We never leave the kids unless we have taken a holiday nanny with us (grandma or niece :) ). We usually book a suite and when the kids are in bed order room service and its just like private dinning.

[shockinglybadteacher]

MaryWestmacott running to get dc is a very understandable reaction but not a helpful one! This sounds a bit weird but based on how people who are tasked with evacuation in the event of a disaster work, it makes sense.

OK, the worst happens, there's a fire, sinking ship or whatever. Security and people with responsibility for evacuation will have a clear plan based on the number of people in the room, evacuees with special needs (there is usually a personalised plan for these people), available exits and logical actions (don't go towards places where a fire is likely to break out...I once worked in a building where the muster point in the event of a bomb threat was in front of a plate glass window! We got that changed). A deluge of wailing parents looking for their dc actually fucks everything up and makes them less safe, not more.

An example from my previous life as a security guard. I had to evacuate 200 people because a fire had broken out. It was a proper fire, not an alert. Most people could smell the smoke and we got them out in an orderly fashion - except for one bloke. He charged through the flow of people towards the fire because he'd left his coat in there.

Evacuating 200 people isn't easy at the best of times and it's worse when you are trying to control the flow of people, you're worried about a spreading fire and some nutter is yammering in your face about his super important coat. At that point, if I was evacuating his dc, they would have been safe like everyone else. My job as security was to get people out of the danger zone quickly and safely. It would be the same if he was yelling where are my tiny babies instead of where is my designer coat, he was actually endangering everyone else.

Trust security, we're trained for this shit. Running towards us yelling "WHERE HAVE YOU PUT JEMIMA AND TARQUIN" in the middle of a disaster makes everything worse. And doesn't particularly help Jemima and Tarquin.

[WildFlowersAttractBees]

We have 3 DC's and only use hotel rooms for weekends away as we would never leave the kids in the room alone.
We find self catering cottages/villas/apartments work best for us.

[Peanut15]

We do this with 18 month old ds. Go to family friendly hotels in uk and use their baby listening whilst we go for dinner in the hotel restaurant. The hotels aren't massive - 30-40 rooms, ds is a brilliant sleeper and still in a co the can't get out of and we check on him ever 30 mins or so. We work in a family business so both grandparents need a break from us and we find the couple time at dinner very important for our relationship. Not sure if I'd do it abroad.

There are a lot more people out there who do this than are admitting it on here - we were at one such hotel last week where there were at least 8 couples a night making use of the baby listening

[MollyWhuppie]

My main concern would be DCs unlocking hotel door (which can be easily done from inside most hotel rooms) and wandering around looking for us, upset.

We take DCs with us out to eat, bed at 10ish, they gradually wake later throughout the holiday and also take a daytime nap - including the older one.

The hotel we were at this year had a babysitting service - you could get one of the lovely ladies from the kids club so you and your children would know them but we didn't do this as it was expensive and kids not keen on sitters in general, so just took them out with us and it was fine. Previous years we have done villas but still taken kids out with us if we wanted a meal out - it's perfectly fine on holiday to be out of routine. They get back into it pretty quickly when back home.

Would never leave them unattended.

[MrsDavidBowie]

When the kids were small we would get a babysitter from reception to babysit in our villa. In Portugal.
Would still do that again.

[tobysmum77]

groan. ... On these threads you always get the predictable 'I'd never leave my children in a holiday club/ family holidays how could you have a meal without the children' responses. frankly they make me heave, not least because on another thread they'll be me people banging on about taking children to restaurants being inconsiderate .

I don't stay in hotels with the dc. We self cater, that way we have enough space so can chill out in the evening. If a babysitter was available that I trusted I would use one.

[Oriunda]

Went to a Sensatori last year. Left DS in the nursery each morning. Felt no guilt. He had a great time, I got a couple of hours to myself, DH played golf. Win all round.

[Groovee]

My children used to sleep in the afternoon when they were little as the heat would knock them for six. Then we'd have a later on dinner and go to any entertainment. We never had a meal by ourselves. We used to take the buggy for ds and dd was always happy to dance the night away!

Now they are 14 and nearly 12, we did leave them in the room one afternoon last week while we had a drink in the bar. That was the first time ever.

[Groovee]

Oh and my dh would never allow them to be left alone.

As a child his parents left him and his brother in the caravan one night, when they got back, the boys were gone. BIL had woken up and was howling and dh had woken up and age 5 took him and his brother out of the caravan to find their parents. Unfortunately they missed each other and there was a lot of panic on both sides. Dh would never have left the kids alone because of it. He clearly remembers it and said it was far too much responsibility for any child.

On our first ever holiday abroad with the kids, I stayed in the apartment with my book as ds was asleep, while dh and dd went to the bar. Having been up since 4am, I was glad of the peace.