To leave my 3 and 5 year olds downstairs while I take a nap?

[Snossidge]

Basically the kids were all up at 6am today, 1 year old wanted a nap by 9am and I had a bit of a hangover. 3 and 5 year olds just wanted to play lego and watch Adventure Time.

Was I unreasonable to leave them alone for an hour while I napped upstairs?

perhaps you've been lucky snossidge - perhaps you're an amazing parent.

in 10 years we've had 5 a&3 trips with 3 children....that's about the same as my friends/relatives. children injure themselves, they fall, they poke things in their ears, and push lego bricks up their noses.

maybe your kids are more laid back and sit on the sofa more than other kids, or play more quietly? perhaps they are more mature at 5 and 3 than other kids....are they super safety conscious that you don't need to tell them not to do XYZ or did they learn early what not to do?

if you are confident that no harm will come to them - which you seem to be - and you can look ds teacher in the face and answer her honestly - yes i go upstairs to nap leaving ds 5 and 3 downstairs on their own - then carry on. only your conscience has to carry your choices as a parent.

I am a bit surprised about all this not having toys in rooms, only soft toys etc. My 3 yr DD shares with her 7 year old brother and have all sorts of toys in there, dolls house, cars, superheroes, dinosaurs. She never puts toys in her mouth. She hasn't been in a cot for about a year. We don't have the space for a playroom for a start and they like having toys in the room. They quite often play in there in the morning before getting-up time. (Of course we've done all the major safety measures - bookcase fixed to wall, window locks, no blind cords etc.)
The Lego and Playmobil are kept on accessible shelves in the dining room - I used to keep it out of the way when she was a toddler, but at 3 years she loves playing with it.

The behaviours that you are describing sound quite naughty to me, I don't think it's the norm to have several trips to a&e or for children to jump off furniture or shove things in their noses, perhaps it is?

Having said that it doesn't mean that I think that any children should be left unsupervised.

I've recently started letting ds get up and go downstairs to have cereal and watch TV, he's 7 and to be honest I'm not exactly proud of it but I feel that at age 7 there's a fairly low risk.

Pyjama - at weekends we usually let our kids watch TV in the morning while we snooze. I think a lot of parents do, just on Mumsnet they don't!

Oh to live in a house big enough that I don't need to keep toys in my children's bedrooms.

But then again my small house allows us to be on different floors and always in earshot

Nope, still not seeing a link between number of A&E trips and "naughtiness". Some children are just more physical than others and will climb, jump and put stuff up their noses. Some children are more clumsy than others, some have less common sense. And because children are still learning the limits of their physical capabilities, there are going to be accidents.

We haven't had any A&E visits yet, not because we're fabulous parents or because our children are particularly well behaved, but because we've been lucky! We're also quite unusual among our friends and family with young children, most of whom have experienced sprains, broken bones, knocked out teeth and concussions.

Haha exactly miss stubborn. I'm lucky enough that my wee house has walls so thin I can hear my neighbours giggling in bed. My lights also swing when the kids run about upstairs

Wow. Yanbu. A Cambridge graduate has spoken so we are all obviously overprotective/hysterical for not leaving our toddlers/very young children for so we can have leisurely naps during the day!

Get a fcking grip.

I don't know any mums except some wastes of space/junkies/alcoholics that leave their kids like this. Oh and calling someone a loser for being concerned? Your PhD didn't earn you class obviously.

She doesn't want to nap on the sofa. She wants a relaxing sleep upstairs :

For all those up in arms in horror at the Op, didn't/don't your kids at 3 & 5 ever wake in the mornings before you do and play/draw/read in their rooms? If so, it's not really so different.

They weren't in their room, Flash; they were downstairs. Op was in her room upstairs...

She doesn't want to nap on the sofa. She wants a relaxing sleep upstairs
and she's a mum so she gets the nap...

I reckon most mums have been at end of their tether with exhaustion but op is trying to normalise the situation so she can carry on leaving her kids unattended.

3 & 5 are not the age to be taught independence.

Same floor or different floor... I'm not sure there's much difference. If doors are left open sound will carry pretty well unless you live in a mansion.

No one can control how deep a sleep they fall into. Argue that.

so she can carry on leaving her kids unattended.

Surely 3 and 5 yos can be left unattended in a different room in the house as long as you're aware if a problem arises.

Also having a nap is not being put under anesthetic for goodness sake.... A crying kid would soon wake you surely, as it would in the night when they can quite easily get up and do stuff if they want to.

No one can control how deep a sleep they fall into. Argue that.

How do you/ would you cope in the mornings then when they wake? You may be in a deep sleep whilst your 5yo creeps downstairs to play with the knife drawer!

Look, I'm not necessarily suggesting the Op is suggesting the wisest thing here but from some of the hysteria in here anyone would think she'd left her 18 month old to play in a chainsaw factory!

You have never had an exhausted deep sleep ever? Shut up. You can't control your sleep. I have 3 dc btw.

If you can't ever control your deep sleep, how come suggestions to 'nap on the sofa' are littered through the thread as a brilliant alternative? You are surely just as likely to fall into a deep sleep there as in a bed.

I get up and be awake. Like normal parents .

This ship has sailed because you have already done it but :

Last week while I was cooking dinner in the kitchen DS (5) came in, deathly pale and bloody with a cut of about 1 cm in his arm. Wasn't screaming because he was in shock and couldn't explain how he'd done it, it was so bad I thought he must have found some scissors etc. Turned out all he'd done was put his arm deep in to the sofa and got it caught in the reclining mechanism. Simple accident, he didn't call or scream, there was blood all over him.

I was only away for 10 mins cooking dinner - imagine the guilt if you were gone for a longer time sleeping and came back to find your LO covered in blood and for doing something that wasn't even particularly dangerous....

I get up and be awake. Like normal parents.

What if they don't wake you?