To leave my baby in the car by herself to sleep

[margaritaproblems]

It feels like I am but I don't know 🤷‍♀️
We live in a very quiet cul de sac. Baby is 6 months old and was asleep when we got back so we have let her finish her sleep alone in the car.

Context
We also have a bouncy 4 yo that keeps disturbing her naps so she will nap better away from her.

The car is on the driveway, in full view.

I have left the drivers door wide open so I can hear her if she cries, I have my front windows and door wide open too. I am sat with dd inside, but tv is off while she is colouring in so I can hear.

Although baby is in the car she is only actually about 10ft away from where I am sat.

I can't actually see baby, but I can hear if she cries, and I can't actually see her having all of her nap inside if she was inside anyway as she naps in her pram bassinet so it's not that different, but it feels so alien,
I think because we have only lived here around a year and I could never have done this where we lived before, but if iabu then I won't do it again.

If you are going to just sit and watch them, then just sit in the car with them??

I used to do this all the time. I had a baby monitor app that would call the house phone as soon as any noise was detected in the car (had to leave phone in the car). Our house was at the end of a fairly long drive though, so no passers by as a rule.

I live in a rural area. I think we may be targeted because it is so quiet. Our car was stolen to order apparently by a well known London network. We live 60 miles from London btw.

@nottalotta so mn is a weird parallel universe because some people say they wouldn’t leave a sleeping baby alone in a car? Do you think it’s ok to also leave a sleeping baby alone in an apartment in a holiday complex even if you check on them regularly and they are near? Where do people draw the line? My line is near me in the house. That’s not weird.

I've done this once we moved rurally. In london - not a chance.

I wouldn’t do it.... and I wouldn’t leave them in a holiday complex either.

My anxiety is too high, I would fret about fire, theft.. etc.,etc.,

This place really does attract neurotics!

It’s perfectly fine, fgs it’s not the supermarket car park with the keys in the ignition and we’re in the UK (most of us anyway), where babies do not get kidnapped from their driveways in suburbia, grips need got.

As for choking, no different than than being another room.

JollyRocker Mon 09-Sep-19 14:04:15
This is madness and exactly how kidnappings happen. If you are not going to be watching the car the entire time from indoors then I would definitely not risk it again.

Yeah, cos those are daily events, ain't they.

I wouldn’t for the same reasons as @violetdelights, although in our area it’s a Fox I would be worried about not a cat.
@Nottalotta my first was the same and I would sit in the car with her. I was always amazed how hot it got and how quickly. Even on an overcast day. I’d never leave them with the doors closed and locked for this reason.

Random cats do not go into random cars to sit on random sleeping babies.

Fucking hell, no wonder some people find being a parent so stressful.

@Expo No, I think it because, as I said, everyone I know in real life has done this at some point, often regularly. No one I know in real life is horrified by it.

Your MM comparison is uncalled for. I could see my car, and child, when I did this. I was a few feet away as the car was reversed up to the living room window. I was on the other side of the window.

I used to do it too as I could see the car from the living room window. I didn't leave the door open though. Used to put the baby monitor in the car as it had a battery operated option as well as being mains powered

@Millie2016 yes of course I didn't do it in warmer weather where the car might get too hot. I thought that much would be obvious!

I wouldn’t personally do it. Would make me too anxious but I really couldn’t care if someone else wanted too and wouldn’t give it a second thought if they did! If it worked do it, if it makes your uncomfortable don’t.

Why wouldn't you just bring the car seat inside and into a room and close the door instead of sitting there like a fool watching the car

Because then the baby would wake up?? May as well try and fail at transferring the baby to the cot. Some babies, like adults, are light sleepers.

We live in a quiet cul de sac and I often left DS in the car on the drive. Visibly locked (wing mirrors in), windows down but with cover things on so people can’t tell they’re open. It’s fine! I good solid nap had by the baby, nice 1:1 quiet time with the older one, nice cup of tea had by me. No passers by let alone any kidnappings. I also leave my handbag in the car often 😱

Yep I think fine. Used to do it too.

I wouldn't. It all sounds like a massive stressful faff.

I'd sit in the car with the baby or bring the baby inside.

DS sleeps in the car all the time. Very quiet village, would hear another car coming, car is directly outside the front door. I leave the front door open and check on him at regular intervals. I can’t get worked up about the minute risks.

He sleeps in his pushchair in the back garden pretty much every day too and I don’t hover over him at all then. He’s yet to be attacked by the vicious neighbourhood cats.

I would be more worried about my babies health.SIDS risk doesn’t drop until post 6 months and the advice is for them to sleep in the same room.Im aware however most people don’t do this.

Actually, come to think of it, the only time I lock the car on our road is when DS is in it 😂 and I usually leave my purse in it!

I used to do this with DS1 when he was little. I'd be at the end of my tether as he wouldn't nap, and I'd drive him around as it was the only way he'd go to sleep. If I tried to move the car seat he'd wake immediately, so I'd leave him in there. I used a baby monitor to hear him and leave the windows open a little but lock the door. Sometimes I'd sit in with him and read but usually I'd go inside and get stuff done. I hated summer when he was a baby as I couldn't leave him in there.

I would and did do this, esp when DTs were small and would only sleep in the car but one would wake before the other. Used to sit on the porch with one of them waiting for the other to wake up.

I dont think that's a good idea. Kidnappings happen a lot. It's an unnecessary risk. The phone rings one of the children cry, that slight distraction isn't worth it.

Nope I wouldn’t do this. I know someone who often did thankfully the day there car went on fire out whilst parked on the driveway of the blue the baby was not inside it. I have a 7 year old with ASD and adhd plus a toddler baby is used to the noise and sleeps through it.

Yes I do it on occasion when the baby falls asleep on the way back from somewhere. If I move him he wakes up. But then again, he is child no 4 so I’m more relaxed than I was when no one was a baby.

Honestly, MN is a bit of a strange place with regard to risk. Everything we do in life is a risk. In order to get through life we all have to take risks and calculate whether it’s worth doing so in order to make life smoothly navigable. The actual chance of something bad happening to a child while left sleeping in a car is virtually zero.

I am a newspaper reporter and only on one occasion have I covered a story where a thief stole a car with a sleeping baby in it. They stopped the car two streets away and legged it once they realised the baby was in it. Most car thieves aren’t actually baby kidnappers.