Leaving the house whilst the baby is asleep.

[Plateofcrumbs]

Which (if any) of these are reasonable reasons to leave the confines of your house whilst you are home alone and the baby is napping in their cot?

1. quickly putting the bins out at end of (short) front garden, not carrying baby monitor.

2. Gardening in largish back garden, carrying baby monitor although it occasional goes out of range for short periods (1 minute or so)

3. Sitting on patio with a glass of wine in the evening, with monitor

4. Rescuing your cat from front garden of neighbour 4 doors down (away from house for 2 mins, carrying monitor still in range)

5. Collecting a parcel from neighbour 2 doors down (out of house for 2 mins, no monitor).

6. clearing up a bin bag full of nappies that has been ripped apart by a fox and is scattered across street in front of your house (out for 5 mins, monitor in range).

I have done some of these, DH has done others. Are we U?

For (4) and (6) I wouldn't bother taking the monitor - it's going to take as long as it takes to rescue the cat / clear up the nappies.

I personally wouldn't do (4) and (5) but that's because I don't think dh would do any of them and if something did happen I would not want to confess I was a few houses away!

Make sure you have your house keys in your pocket though.

just saying, no particular reason....

All reasonable, providing as pps said you always take a second to check you have your keys! I'd perhaps be more wary if the baby was mobile/able to escape from cot, but on balance I've done most of these things in my time.

Yep fine. Just make sure you don't lock yourself out!

I've done all without thinking twice about it. I would hear if baby was being sick which was my main worry.

In the summer, I sellotape netcurtain type fabric on the window of the nursery, so it can stay open without any wasp/ hornet flying in and I can relax.

All fine I think.

I've done (1), (3) and (5) without a monitor.
I'd do (6) without a monitor if needed.
I'd never do (4) because no one in their right mind would ask me to help with animals!
Cant imagine doing (2) but if I thought I wouldn't hear them and a monitor would I'd be happy with that.

In fact, we only used a monitor during the daytime if we were downstairs and there was other noise - TV, radio, oven, etc. Our HV advised that at night, unless the baby slept in another wing (ha!) we'd hear them if they woke and needed us so no need for the monitor. Admittedly, where we live is quiet at night.

I think they're all reasonable.

All reasonable. I have been known to pop to the post box (2 mins) or even Hoover my car (10-15mins) whilst DS has been asleep. Shit gotta be done. Although wouldn't now as he's moved out of a cot and into a bed and could trash the place in two minutes unattended.

I would do all of the above, carrying front door keys for the ones out the front as my door can slam shit if it's windy and there are windows open.

That's quite the front door you have there Fank

Yes sounds ok to me. I had to chase a horse down a road once at 2am and left the house without even taking the monitor and was out for a few minutes. Felt terrible, but would have felt terrible if said horse had killed someone. Sometimes you've got to do these things.

All fine.

All perfectly reasonable things to do. Baby is safe. As long as you have your keys then there is no problem.

All normal and reasonable. Not sure why you are asking this. Has someone accused you of being U?

Oh and I never owned a monitor. I would just listen at the door every 10 mins. But I had girls and they could yell!!

Not sure all of thosethings need to be do asap...... Eg collecting a parcel. how did you know the cat needed rescuing?

I've done the bins for sure, and I've been in the back garden when baby was asleep in buggy in the back of the house where I could see it. Often in that case DH is also in the house upstairs anyway as he works from home so he would hear her if she woke.

We don't have a cat, and we rarely get deliveries left at the neighbours as DH is usually home, so those don't apply. I'm not sure I'd leave the actual confines of our house or garden leaving the baby inside.

A recent thing I did do which was a similar scenario - got home with 2 kids on a v cold day to find broken glass all over our drive from a smashed bottle. Baby was asleep in the buggy so I left her by the front door while I fetched broom & dustpan - DD1 aged 3 was very cold so I said 'do you want to wait indoors while I sweep up?'. I left her inside while I did the sweeping up, the first time I think she's been inside by herself for any more than a couple of minutes.

frank where did you get your door, i can imagine that being very handy for keeping out unwanted tradespersons

I'm another one who has never had a monitor and I would do all these things.

All fine as far as I'm concerned. Just don't forget your keys!

DH has done most of the above, I haven't done any - my anxiety would have kicked in and stopped me leaving the boundary for the neighbourly ones. The bins isn't my job

Yep, all fine. I'd do all of those.

Another one here that never had a monitor - I was also a LP for the first 18 months of DS's life so there were often times when I had to leave him alone for a few minutes just to go to the loo or have a shower in peace to do most of the things listed. I never did the cat one, as we didn't have a cat.

Once, in extremis, I did nip to the shop at the top of the road. It was first thing in the morning, I was there and back in about 7 mins (less time probably than I'd spend out of the house sorting out washing - we had a leanto/utility room that you had to go out via the garden to access) and DS was asleep the whole time, but I felt I shouldn't have done it.

I also once was on the flat roof at the back of the house painting the first floor windows - DS was in his bouncy chair inside, I could see him through the window. Which was fine although it was only after I'd finished it occurred to me I'd have been in the shit if the large window that I'd climbed out through had blown shut (as I had no way of getting off the roof, no keys, and back in those days no mobile). Thankfully it never happened and as I get older I'm more risk averse than I ever was back then.

Context is I had to rescue the cat today (4) and when I told DH (that it felt really weird to walk down the road whilst DS was indoors) it transpired he had been out to collect a parcel (5) the other night and I was a bit WTF? at first but actually don't think it is any different to stuff I've done (gardening, fox-strewn nappy collection etc).