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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:
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MadamDeathstare · 15/02/2016 00:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
SashaFierce99 · 15/02/2016 00:33

I admit I hadn't considered cats. I'll research a net, thanks.

OP posts:
MerryInthechelseahotel · 15/02/2016 00:33

I always have babies sleeping outside if possible. They sleep so much better.

This is what it is like in Sweden Grin

to leave my baby in the garden to sleep?
gooseberryroolz · 15/02/2016 00:33

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

I've never heard that saying. Where's it from?

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:33

mummy you just seem a bit... weird about this tbh. Inferring that people who question your weirdness opinions have been drinking, then (I think) you tried to imply I was a dog? (I assume in a derogatory manner). Very, very weird. Perhaps you should take your own advice and partake in the water consumption?

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:35

Oh Carol don't be sensible! Have some water dear!

mummymeister · 15/02/2016 00:35

I live in a rural farming area gooseberry. its quite a common phrase around here.

caroldecker · 15/02/2016 00:35

Oh and 3 attacks reported in about 5 years. So risk assessment:

3 attacks in 5 years from foxes
1,500 deaths in 5 years from SIDS
100,000 killed or injured in 5 years from road accidents.

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:36

gooseberry it's from the dictionary of shite and bollocks.

gooseberryroolz · 15/02/2016 00:36

Oh I see.

blueturtle6 · 15/02/2016 00:36

I told my HV that I leave her to sleep in the pram outside, albeit inside a locked gate and our garden is fox proofed. She was fine with it. Wrt foxes in London they do come out during day and are as bold as brass so I wouldn't leave baby unsupervised due to this.

gooseberryroolz · 15/02/2016 00:37

X post Grin

BertrandRussell · 15/02/2016 00:39

"No one does that anymore and for that reason I wouldn't do it personally.". People only don't do it because of "what people would think" There was no danger then and there is no danger now. Just media inspired hysteria.

Original poster
SashaFierce99 · 15/02/2016 00:39

We're in a town, fairly rural. Never seen a fox in my entire life and we have had chickens for five years who aren't locked away at night and have survived so I'm really not worried about foxes!

OP posts:
MerryInthechelseahotel · 15/02/2016 00:39

Obviously no foxes in Sweden Grin

SinisterBumFacedCat · 15/02/2016 00:39

Tbh I'd be more worried about human predators Hmm

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:42

Sinister as opposed to the blood sucking, vampire foxes, who only feed on the innocence of children?! Shame on you!

DecaffCoffeeAndRollupsPlease · 15/02/2016 00:43

Phah ha ha, I've never met a social worker with enough time to visit an otherwise healthy baby in a satisfactory home environment for the crime of sleeping outside in a pram. If that's actually true I will have to spread the word that "sleeping outside in a pram" is the magic sentence to get help from social when you actually WANT them to come over.

scrivette · 15/02/2016 00:44

I leave DS to sleep in the pram in the back garden. I wouldn't leave him for long in the front as I wouldn't be able to see him.

OP it sounds fine what you are doing.

IfNotNowThenWhenever · 15/02/2016 00:46

I'm really weirded out by someone who has never ever seen a fox! I hear them out the back every night, and have seen them out foraging in broad daylight, sauntering down my street looking for food in midwinter. People who keep chickens around here have to put them in a hen house at night, and even then foxes will often find a way in.

Speaking of cats, a neighbours cat once got into our house and ripped our kitten to shreds, so cats can be dangerous to smaller beings.
I think the baby would be fine tbh, but a net might be best.

ElderlyKoreanLady · 15/02/2016 00:47

Like a few others, my issue with this would be that it's the front garden rather than the back. It most certainly is not the same as being in a different room of the house...presumably someone couldn't get into a room in the house uninvited and undetected. But in this instance the first the OP knew that someone had come into the garden with her sleeping baby was the knock at the front door. I'm far more weary of people than I am of foxes.

Potatoface2 · 15/02/2016 00:47

yeah its fine.....madeline mccanns parents thought it was okay to leave her and her siblings in bed, in a room, with a shut door and were keeping a close eye on them and she was ......oppps scrub that!!!!!

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:48

Yes, because that's totally comparable... Hmm

What the hell is with this place tonight?!

Potatoface2 · 15/02/2016 00:49

i suspect those babies in sweden are hypothermic and are in a coma!!!!

PaulAnkaTheDog · 15/02/2016 00:53

Ah, Potato; you're taking the piss! Smile

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