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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to leave my baby in the garden to sleep?

676 replies

SashaFierce99 · 14/02/2016 23:44

With three older siblings, it's difficult for baby to nap uninterrupted at the weekend/in holidays. She's just over a year old so still needs at least one long or two short naps per day. When her siblings are off we tend to walk/scoot/skate/bike to the park before her nap and she falls asleep in the pushchair on the way home. I then leave her in the front garden in front of the kitchen window and DCs and I paint/bake/draw in the kitchen so she's in sight at all times.

Today we did the above but there was a knock at the door ten minutes after we arrived home. It was a neighbour advising me that it's too cold and too dangerous to leave her unsupervised outside. I explained that I can see her and she's well wrapped up (full body vest, outfit on top plus jumper, double socks and full snow suit and hat) so she's fine but the neighbour kept saying I should take her inside. I politely declined and said I needed to get back to the other DC. She muttered about how I'll end up 'getting reported to someone'...!

AIBU to leave her outside?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
FrasierCranium · 15/02/2016 00:20

Did a fox steal your baby?

NanaNina · 15/02/2016 00:21

Oh and none were killed by foxes either!! We did watch out for te odd rogue tiger than might have escaped from the zoo..........

mummymeister · 15/02/2016 00:22

Frasier - if that's supposed to be a play on words - a dingo stole my baby - then sorry that is in very, very poor taste.

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:22

Apologies mummymeister. I didn't realise a fox had taken your child.

FrasierCranium · 15/02/2016 00:23

Dingo? What? Hmm

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:23

Good grief, stop with the drama llama shit.

Babymamamama · 15/02/2016 00:23

Bertrand I'm not going to debate this any more but I've just done a quick Google search of babies killed or attacked by foxes and there are news articles from 2010, 2014 and 2015. I distinctly remember one instance as it took place very close to where I was living at the time. Many parents were very upset about it at the time. But parenting is all about balancing your own risks and I can see I hold a minority view.

mummymeister · 15/02/2016 00:23

Anka - you clearly need to take more water with it as well.

what an apt name.

it was a cat. I can tell the difference.

gleegeek · 15/02/2016 00:24

YANBU. My dd slept happily outside our house in her pram - much much better than she did inside. She liked looking up at the dark and light contrast of the trees above. Think it's really sad how many people wouldn't do it tbh.

FrasierCranium · 15/02/2016 00:24

Take more water with what?! Why do you keep saying that? What does it even mean?!

liinyo · 15/02/2016 00:24

It was normal in this country in the 50s and 60s and possibly earlier for all I know Many people have pointed out it is still normal in Scandinavia.

It doesn't seem anymore isolating for the child than putting them to sleep in a bedroom upstairs

Assuming the baby is warm and dry then it all seems fine to me

BUT
We live in an area with a lot of cats and foxes so I would want some sort of net or screen over the pram. I seem to remember them from my childhood too.

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:25

Frasier like 20 years ago or so dingoes killed a baby. Pretty awful. The mother was charged with murder until they found the baby's remains (I think).

Why that is relevant to foxes in the UK is beyond me though... Nocturnal animals, prowling in the daylight to steal babies.... Dearie me.

SinisterBumFacedCat · 15/02/2016 00:26

Back garden I can understand
although today was pretty nippy but front garden? This reminds me of the days when I was little and it was common place for mums to leave their babies in prams outside shops. No one does that anymore and for that reason I wouldn't do it personally.

MrsUnderwood · 15/02/2016 00:26

YANBU, babies do well sleeping in the fresh air, I know mine does.

Would love to see a link to a credible news source about these savage, baby killing foxes.

HarrietSchulenberg · 15/02/2016 00:26

Personally I would have no issue with baby napping outdoors, wrapped warmly and in a pram. Foxes and cats are highly unlikely to launch attacks.
But, I would be concerned about the whole front garden scenario. It is just too easy for someone to enter your front garden unless you have a high, locked gate, which your neighbour's visit has suggested that you don't. Even if you sat right next to the window with eyes fixed on pram, you could very easily be distracted by something indoors and you would definitely then not be supervising your baby who would be left outside your house and vulnerable.
Yes, "something awful" happening is unlikely, but accidents happen even in the most best situations.
Is it not possible to put the pram in the back garden or somewhere more secure?

Shemozzle · 15/02/2016 00:26

I have no issue with a baby napping outside, but the fact it is in front of the house really bothered me until I read the post that said only the neighbour could see. Front of my house is exposed to a busy street so I wouldn't. I would put a mobile baby monitor in the pram, and put a bike lock or bolt on the gate, and then I'd be happy with it.

mummymeister · 15/02/2016 00:27

FrasierCranium - for the benefit of the hard of thinking:

"take more water with it" is what you say to someone that you suspect has overimbibed and as a result is talking shite.

"a dingo stole my baby" google it. it was a famous case in Australia in my youth. Meryl Streep starred in the film.

BumWad · 15/02/2016 00:27

I don't see a problem with it. Best sleep I've had is when I've been camping and it's been freezing out but I've been wrapped in a thick sleeping bag. I can imagine babies feeling the same way in the pram and snowsuit.

Slight hysteria on this thread. Your garden is just an extension of your house just like another room!!!

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:27

mummymeister please stop telling people to take water when you don't agree with them. It's weird and makes you look odd...

mummymeister · 15/02/2016 00:30

ahh Anka - you are mistaking me for someone who gives a shit about what you think. I have seen your goady posts before.

Original poster
SashaFierce99 · 15/02/2016 00:30

House is in a quiet cul de sac and set back from the road.

OP posts:
FrasierCranium · 15/02/2016 00:31

Lol this thread is bonkers Grin

gooseberryroolz · 15/02/2016 00:31

Back garden with french doors open and side access locked, maybe.

Front garden, no.

LightDrizzle · 15/02/2016 00:31

If the pram isn't visible from the street and you have a cat net then YANBU at all. It was the norm for babies to be put outside in the pram, at least once a day, well wrapped up to get "fresh air". Mine only went out for naps occasionally as I'd never let them cry and wasn't confident about hearing from the house, I also wasn't organised enough and naps weren't reliable, my first hardly slept during the day from being teeny.

caroldecker · 15/02/2016 00:32

All the reported fox attacks occurred in the home when the babies were indoors but a different room to the parents - so actually statistically safer in pram outdoors.