Hotel advertising their restaurant is within range of baby monitors

[Teakind]

Hello,

I was looking at booking a short break in the UK and found a hotel along the south coast that offers 'baby breaks' as their rooms are close to the restaurant and so most baby monitors would work. AIBU to think this is odd and irresponsible?

I can see the argument that it's a small hotel and so the distance could be similar to being in your lounge and the baby being upstairs but it just doesn't sit comfortably with me. Any weirdo could also see parents sitting at a table with a baby monitor and know that there is a baby/child alone in a room somewhere.

Just interested to see what other people think and I do have a tendency to over worry!

We eat early as a family or hire an apartment rather than a hotel room. No way would I do this!

There's a whole hotel chain that do this a luxury family hotels. We've been a few times and What we saw in the restaurant tells a v diff story to this thread - there are loads of people who do it!

I’ve done this. My monitor had a screen so I could both see and hear DS. We also used the listening service.

We’re going back at Easter time. Made a nice change from sitting in the hotel bathroom eating take away!

well i think it's a horrifying idea and wouldn't do it in a million years.

The macanns couldn't see their appartment. They said they checked regularly but this has not been verified as they never released a clear timeline or did a reconstruction. As I've stated before this is nothing like the Madeley new Machen scenario.

We've left children asleep in a hotel room when we dined downstairs but they were regularly checked on and we had the monitor.

I wouldn't have done it if I thought it was 'likely' to cause harm, surely it wasn't?

Isn't that what everyone who wasn't as lucky thought? Nobody thinks they'll be in a car accident when they get in the car but had that happened to you what would have become of your DC?

Whilst I don't like the hotels idea, I think Tot was 100 times more irresponsible as even if something had happened, you wouldn't have had a clue.

Even if it's something minor like your kid waking up scared from a bad dream and with no one to comfort him.

Hotel's.

Some cameras are genuinely very sensitive, I can hear if someone walks in front of DS's room.

I wouldn't do it. A hotel we visit a lot with family offers a "listening service". MIL and I nearly fell out last time we were there because she couldn't understand why I wasn't willing to use it so we could all go boozing once the kids were asleep.

Tot that was a terrible thing to do

Once again, this time with feeling, very few people are paedophiles. Your children are at far more risk from you, your family and friends, their friends' parents and teachers than ever from a randomer in a hotel. Think about that every time you send your child to school, or to friend or leave them with your husband. That's what you should be worried about!

What if the fire alarm went off and a load of parents try making it to their room to rescue their child rather than getting out of the hotel?

Why is the risk of fire always magnified by about a million times on these threads. No one ever thinks ‘I’d better not stay in a hotel in case of a fire’. It’s not something that ever crosses my mind when I’m in a hotel. I think they’re far far safer than most homes. Yes if an alarm went off there could potentially be a stampede of parents but I wouldn’t factor that as a risk worth worrying about because it’s so small.

I’ve been in a few false alarms at hotels (I do a lot of travelling) the thought of people getting in my way coming up the stairs whilst I’m trying to go down them winds me up.

Appreciate my bad luck and false alarms have tended to be at stupid o’clock when the parents would have been in the rooms but the risk is still there

Risk isn’t just measured in terms of chances of something happening, it’s also what the impact of the thing happening would be. So, chances of a fire may be low but the negative outcome if it did would be extremely high. Chance of stubbing your toe in the dark room is high but the outcome of doing that is minor. The risk of a fire is low (and yet, not hard to find examples of them) but the outcome for a child alone in a room when there was a fire is very poor indeed.

Oh and I have had a false alarm during an evening meal. I might or might not have taken my plate of food out with me, priorities!

I was concerned about my food, I really would have hated to be concerned about a child in the room during the alarm.

I dunno look at what happened at Cameron house only a month or so ago. It happens.

Nobody thinks they'll be in a car accident when they get in the car but had that happened to you what would have become of your DC?

If tot had been in a car accident so serious that she was unable to communicate to convey the situation with the child for a significant amount of time then it sounds like her baby not being in the car would have been a lucky escape...

I did this 10 years ago in a very well known Cornish "family" hotel. I cannot now believe I did it. The hotel normalises it. Everyone else seems to be doing it so you are pulled into a false sense of security. It is utter madness. Apart from the abduction / abuse risk (and I agree with the pp who says that offenders are drawn to roles with access to children - look at Vanessa George) the fire risk or even just asphyxiation in a strange cot is all very real.

Whoa, asphyxiation in a strange cot? Would you just never go on holiday at all then? I mean are you saying that if you were asleep in the room you would wake up and save them if they stopped breathing?

It's all a bit pfb

Risk isn’t just measured in terms of chances of something happening, it’s also what the impact of the thing happening would be.

Yes, this is so important and often seems to have been missed in this conversation.

Also, when deciding what level of risk is acceptable, people also need to consider why they’re taking that risk. Deciding to leave an 8 year old at home while you go to the chemist for medication, for example, is different to leaving an 8 year old at home while you pop out to the pub for a few hours. Leaving a child alone in a hotel room just because you want an evening out isn’t something that justifies any level of risk for the child in my opinion.

I stayed in a fancy hotel in Cornwall that offered a ‘baby listening’ service. For a fee they offered to listen to your baby in your room at reception while you had dinner or went to the spa etc. The thought of this didn’t sit well with me at all and while I would have liked to have a grown up meal one evening, we were on a family holiday and I didn’t think it was worth the risk!

But surely if it’s people getting jobs for the sole purpose of abusing children you’re worried about your children are far more at risk at nursery/ school/ childminders etc. I don’t really see how letting someone from a hotel watch your baby is different to employing a babysitter that you don’t really know and millions of people do that without worrying. Ikea I do get what you’re saying but to me leaving a child alone in a hotel room for a couple of hours with regular checks carries about as much risk as them being asleep in their cot at home with regular checks, therefore I didn’t perceive they were any more at risk than on a normal night, so didn’t deem it necessary to sit in the dark and in silence with my husband when we could be having a pleasant time together.

I don’t really see how letting someone from a hotel watch your baby is different to employing a babysitter that you don’t really know and millions of people do that without worrying.

We’re talking about parents leaving their child unsupervised, not leaving them in the care of a babysitter though? If the suggestion was that parents leave their child with a hotel babysitter, who the hotel has employed, checked references for, carried out a DBS check on etc, then the discussion would be very different.

And again, I don’t think you can compare a child asleep in their bedroom while the parents are elsewhere in the home to leaving a child unattended in a hotel room. Most people regularly leave valuable possessions out in their home (iPads, laptops, etc) whereas in a hotel they’d choose to use a safe or keep valuables with them. That shows that a hotel is not the same as your home in terms of safety and security.