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?

Sounds ok to me. But then 12 years ago we used to go next door but one, or they came to us after baby was tucked up for the night, baby monitor in hand. I have to say though, after Madeleine McCann was taken it made me rethink things and I got a bit paranoid for a time.
I agree with the others about just checking you have keys etc before popping out. And make the most of it because once baby starts moving and climbing out of the cot you don't be able to do it anymore anyway!!

I would do 1,2 & 3.

Oh yeah I check keys about 5 times even if I am just putting bins out and am not even closing the door

With the gardening - monitor only really goes out of range if I am down to the compost heap at the far end (and it beeps when out of range). When DS started predictably having a longer afternoon nap last summer I frequently pottered in the garden for an hour whilst he slept.

I can think of quite a few people I wish my front door would slam shit at!!

I would do any of those and have also run across the road to the cafe for a takeaway cuppa.

We live next door to a bar. After one very tedious day with the DC while DH was away on travel, after the kids were sleeping I went next door and had a drink. I had the baby monitor on and it had enough range to work (as they are the other side of the wall!).

I am very pregnant right now so no more drinking for a while.

Oh and we don't have a self locking front door. I would def lock myself out!

I don't see anything wrong with popping out for any of those situations. I'd be obsessively checking I had my keys though.

I used to do all these, except the cat, didn't havea monitor. If it's warm enough to sit out or garden it's warm enough to leave windows open. Wouldn't do what the McCanns did though.

All fine

The only one I wouldn't have done is the parcel collection without the monitor, and the only reason is that I couldn't have guaranteed that it would only be 2 minutes, just in case they got chatting or something.

All the others, fine.

It's more of a sad reflection on society that you felt the need to ask.

Thinking we must have been reckless parents.

Laguna - Where can I get a door that slams shit at people I don't like?

I think all are reasonable. And none are treasonable!!

Our street is quite friendly, and while there were smallies, we tended to meet in 2 of the houses in particular as the monitors were within range of the houses of the babies - parents would settle the babies and pop in periodically during the evening, and if any crying went on, but could enjoy the chat and company with us all.

We only have 1 DD who tended towards being a nightowl, and DH also was happy on occasion to head home early with her. So we didn't do the monitor thing. But I have left her for errands like yours.

Now, I am watching her having learned not only how to cook, but to actually turn on the cooker for herself (gas) and has recently taken to making hot chocolate to drink as she wants it herself. (She's 10). Now that has started to make me feel like a reckless parent - but then I was cooking at her age and younger too! And she has been taught to be careful.

It's interesting that we worry about these kinds of things, and yet I suspect many of us have done the perfectly normal thing of putting a young child to sleep in a separate room at night, then gone to sleep ourselves - so effectively for hours and hours, we are completely unconscious and not monitoring the child at all (until they make enough noise to wake us!)

It's an irrational anxiety (but completely understandable when you're a parent): if something bad could happen in the five minutes I'm in the garden, what could happen in the hours that I am asleep...

But what about the foxes?

All sound reasonable to me. I remember when I was a newly single parent and lived in a block of flats and one night I needed to take the bin out because it was full and stinking but DD had just fallen asleep. I completely panicking not knowing if it was acceptable to leave my flat, go down two flights of stairs, out the building and walk down to the end where the bins where. I didn't have a baby monitor then. I had to ask my friends online if it was ok to do that and they laughed at me and said of course it was.

Exactly Dad but I do understand and remember that anxiety well.

I would do all of those without the monitor. I've even sat in next door's garden with a glass of wine - no fence between, back door open, could hear if she cried, but far enough away that I felt I'd escaped.

Oh yes, I'm not dismissing the anxiety. I still worry sometimes when 11yo DS is off playing in the park on his own, out of proportion of any risk involved. I'm just showing how our anxiety is irrational in that it twitches into life in some situations while ignoring others even though the (very small) risks might be the same in each.

But what if a fox were to break in through the cat flap and carry the baby downstairs to he waiting white slavers!

How old is the baby? I wouldn't do any of those but it seems I'm in the minority.

Well while all are reasonable, I suspect they might be treasonable only if your name is Catherine and your maiden is Middleton! And the baby Is called Charlotte!

Totally fine. In fact, in most of the scenarios you mentioned, doing it while the baby is safely sleeping in their cot is probably a lot safer than trying to coordinate a small person at the same time.

I barely leave the house when my DD is asleep. I do go into the garden but the monitor is in range. If I were to be where it goes out of range (bin area, garages, far end of garden etc) I always leave monitor in range and turn the volume right up.
I wouldn't pop next door to get a parcel but it's non urgent, and we'd end up chatting. I'd wait til she woke up and bring her. I would run out the house if my dog got out but I'd be shitting it. If it was a cat (ie supposed to be free, unlike my mad dogs!) I probably wouldn't leave to get it.
I would happily go out of range for short times, putting bins out, emptying car etc