Child playing alone in garden

[Bitchfeatures]

AIBU, 2.5yr old playing in the garden alone. I think he's too young, DP says he will be ok and I'm been overprotective.
The garden has a 6ft fence and a locked gate, can see less than half of the garden via kitchen window, can't see at all via living room window, the back doors open so can hear but not necessarily see.
DS wants to be in the garden allll day, I sit out/play with him but it's a pain not been able to get housework etc done on the days we are home.
Who's BU?

I could only put my two year old son in the garden years ago,in a large wooden play pen,as I had a large and long back garden,that backed onto a big field,with a small fence only.. At certain times of the year,there was a huge combine harvester thrashing about the field, which my son loved to see. He was always happy in the play pen with toys,and our small dog for company.

He still remembers the Combine harvester,with the farmer and his little dog sitting up top, and he is 48 now ha ha,

I would be worried about small children picking up and swallowing things, when my son was about three,he was playing with a boy,same age,the boy had brought a few marbles round, not bought by me,I hate them. My son swallowed one, we ended up having to go to hospital for xrays for several days on the run,to see the journey of the marble inside, until it eventually passed through him.

It depends on the garden and just how "unsupervised" your child is. Not a good idea if your garden has lots of poisonous plants or plants with poisonous berries, for example. Also not good if areas of water, or uneven concrete, or dangerous items regularly chucked over the fence by passers by, or your child has a serious allergy to insect stings, and your child is literally unsupervised in ways where you cannot hear or see them at all for long periods of time... etc It could be OK, could be a dreadful idea, depending on the actual garden, just how genuinely unsupervised they are and for how long, and the child's personality.

It's perfectly alright for him to play in the garden as long as he can get in the back door if he wants you.and you check on him occasionally. He's not going to be in garden all day but it's nice for him to be in the fresh air while the weather is still good.

It must depend so much on the child.

Once DD was past the age of putting stones in her mouth, I relaxed (and that was about 13/14 months) - but she's not a very mouth-curious child. OTOH I know as a child I'd put anything and everything in my mouth.

With concrete ... well, yes, they could fall. But they could do that with you watching, too! The issue there isn't really the danger. The issue is whether you, personally, would feel awful if you'd been that bit further away. Personally, I don't think I would, but that doesn't mean someone else is wrong to think otherwise.

I think it's too young.

Would you leave your child in a bath, the answer is no.
At under 3 too young to be alone.
Better safe than sorry

The bath is obviously dangerous. They're not going to drown on the lawn are they.

Plus, it does depend a bit what you mean by 'leave'.

DD is a talker, so sure, I will leave her in the bath while I go do the ironing in the next room, but the instant I hear her stop chuntering, I go in.

Same with the garden, same with anything. You might equally well worry (as someone on a recent thread pointed out) about them choking silently on their vomit while rear-facing in your car. It's exceptionally unlikely and doesn't counterbalance the benefits of putting them in a safe position, but if that's where your nightmare scenario lies, that's what you will worry about.

Your DS may want to be in the garden all day but kids do need to learn at some point that the world doesn't revolve solely around their wants.

Perhaps she hope her DS will one day lead the Conservative party?

mummmy2017 toddler isn’t going to drown in the garden!

I wouldn’t be happy having such a young child out of sight. They do dangerous things like eating leaves or stones that they could choke on, and have no fear of slugs, spiders, bees, dead birds etc that they shouldn’t be touching. I prefer to be able to see my toddler.

Nope. Stays inside till I can go outside with her.

I wanted to be able to hear if they yelled or cried or whatever

Choking children wouldn’t be doing either.

Far too young, stay out and play with your DS. Before you know it he will be a teen who won’t come out of his room, does nothing more than grunt at you and you will look back wistfully on the days when you would spend hours counting bugs, chalking pavements, blowing bubbles etc.

Does anyone actually want their child to fear slugs, spiders, bees or dead birds? Life’s about them not being fearful of those things.

Does anyone actually want their child to fear slugs, spiders, bees or dead birds?
Yes. Spiders can bite. Bees can sting. Dead birds and mice etc can carry some nasty diseases, as can slugs. If a dog eats a slug that’s infected with lungworm it can kill them. There was a highly publicised case of a man who ate a lungworm-infected slug and became brain damaged and paraplegic. I don’t want my DC to be afraid but it’s important to understand not to touch or eat.

Oh dear.

Would you leave your child in a bath, the answer is no.
Stupid comparison

I wouldn't leave him outside alone all day OP but I think it'd be fine to leave him for an hour or so while you got on with some non noisy (ie no hoovering) housework, as long as you check on him every so often.

I wouldn’t do it personally.

I don’t even let my 5 year old play in the garden on his own unless I can see him

My son is 2.5- I absolutely wouldn’t leave him. He’s physically capable and generally quite a ‘sensible toddler’, but he slipped and fell off the top of the slide the other day. I was there immediately to comfort him but also, I knew that he hadn’t hit his head etc... he wouldn’t have been able to tell me what had happened if I’d just come across him crying.

He’s also found random cat poo and berries and been naturally curious. I would consider it if we had a conservatory, but generally- no.

Ds1 - Look mummy I got half a worm.
Me - Where's the other half
Ds1 - In my tummy.

He's still here, 28, built like a brick sh

I let ds out at a similar age. He climbed the tree onto the shed roof.

He was quite happy but I wasn’t!

A cat/fox could get in and attack him. He could put a rock in his mouth and choke. He could bump his head on a wall ad cut it. Children that age need supervision. You can’t teally leave him alone outside while you vacuum your whole house. But leaving him unsupervised for a couple of minute while you empty the dishwasher is fine.

Some of the suggestions for things that could go wrong on this thread are properly mental.

Where the fuck do you all live that your gardens are littered with dead birds?!!?

Oh, MN.

Some of these potential disaster scenarios are a little ridiculous.
Spiders? In the UK?!? A rabid attacking cat?!?

Honestly 😂

At 2.5 I would remain within earshot and regularly check but yes I’d be happy to let mine play in the garden.

To be fair, we did have a dead bird in the garden but my dcs didn’t eat it.

I wouldn’t
Mainly as mine were terrible for eating stuff and I had to watch them all the time.

Eldest DS also fell once in the garden and cracked his head on a small stone and gushed so much blood that if I hadn’t been there immediately I think it could have been quite nasty.

I used to stand at the kitchen door and iron whilst they pottered or take all the laundry out to fold it.
Try and come up with jobs you can do whilst he plays and then just take him in when you have to get on with other housework.

But mainly- sack off the housework. They aren’t 2.5 for long and it will be winter soon and he won’t want to playing outside for long anyway.