DS coming downstairs on his own?

[chihuahualady]

Not really an aibu but interested in what other parents think.

DS 3 has been coming downstairs on his for the past two weeks and putting the tele on usually helps him self to a piece of fruit as well.He comes down about 6:30 me and OH and DD usually wake up around 8-:8:30.

I'm fine with it but just wondering what other parents do, would you wake up with him and go down? I'm just no good when I'm tired so that extra 2 hours is needed.

I'm not sure if a previous comment about making breakfast for a 7 year was aimed at me or not. To clarify, my ds was 6 or 7 when he got up at 7. We all needed to be up weekdays at 7.30 for school and work. At 7.30 I made breakfast for us all. He wasn't a big eater and needed encouragement to eat or would happily go to school with nothing. Certainly not mollycoddled. He's always been very independent and is a very independent and responsible teenager now.

Too young.
My ds did at 4.

My 2 yr old who sometimes does with 8 Yr old dsd. But for maybe 30 min whilst dh and I make beds and shower No food until we get downstairs

My son who is now 17 and autistic (and newly diagnosed epilepsy) used to get up every morning or during the night at 3.25am to watch Tom and Jerry he was 4 at the time. We lived in a flat at that time so no stairs. He was so quiet at getting up we didn't realise he was up until the tv was blaring! As time went on and he was still getting up early I used to leave out a sandwich and a drink of juice for him until one of us got up.
He still gets up early around 5.30am but now comes through to us to say i'm up and we say get back to bed lol unless one of us is on an early shift. But he has his tv in his room with all his gadgets and he normally goes downstairs makes himself something to eat and takes his tablets. I honestly wouldn't worry too much, im an 80s kids who used to sit on my own on the couch Saturday morning with some cereal watching cartoons.

You have my sympathies... I have always been a night owl (and worked nights for 12 years as it suited my sleep pattern) so I usually don't fall asleep until somewhere between 12 and 2am... However, my eldest is a proper early bird and is up anywhere between 4.30 and 5.30... I would never dream of allowing my children in another room eating and drinking without my knowledge/while I slept.

Every morning of lockdown I have been awake since 5.30am... it's like a form of torture, no doubt about it but I had to give up my lie-ins when I had children... I'm looking forward to that stage everyone talks about when you can't get them out of bed 😂😂

My 5 year old choked a few weeks ago. It was silent and terrifying for everyone. I would never let my young children eat alone now. I've always got one eye on them. Until this point we've been very relaxed about food, but it can happen to anyone. It happened to us and it scared the living daylights out of me. He was just sat in silence with wide eyes and going bright red. If I hadn't have seen him out of the corner of my eye I would never have realised what was happening and the outcome would've been the worst thing imaginable.

Please don't let your 3 year old eat unattended. Move the food out of reach, lock the cupboards. Set your alarm, teach your child to stay in bed until the sun comes up on a clock, or come to wake you up when he wakes. Find a way to keep your child safe all the time. Please.

Do you still have a monitor? Could he take that with him? I think it sounds a little bit young but all kids are different.

So your 2 hours extra sleep is more important than your child's safety. Okay, noted.

My 6.5 year old has only started doing this In. The last fortnight- not before .

Even ignoring the fact that a three year old definitely shouldn’t be watching two hours of tv

laze in bed? Have you even bothered to read the thread.

Probably not just like you haven't bothered to parent your child. You're a bad parent, end of.

My daughter is 5 and I would never let her eat alone or spend 2 hours alone. I love sleeping too though so in the morning she comes up and watches tv/ plays in my room whilst I doze. Could you do this?

@EmeraldShamrock oh hello thread police, I was writing it because there are some batshit mollycoddling of 7 and 8yrs on this thread. Just because a poster set up a thread to which I alrady gave my response earlier doesn't mean I cannot comment on anything else mentioned. Why are you have a go at me about what I write - why not say that to all the other posters who mention their older children in the first place - what relevance is there to that then?

My 2 and 3 year old quite often go downstairs while I'm showering in the morning and ask Google Home to play cartoons to be honest my 3 year old is very timid and rule abiding so probably would do nothing but watch TV if I left her alone for two hours. My 2 year old destroys things while I do the washing up or go to the toilet however, and I can't see her ever being a well behaved child!

I take my 2.5 (almost 3) year old down and she sits on the sofa and watches tv. However her dad is working in the other room the entire time and I come down and check on her in between getting dressed. She doesnt have any food apart from a biscuit and milk. The longest she is left before I check on her is about 10 minutes while I shower.

I wouldnt leave her downstairs for 2 hours while I slept though.

@allybird1

I get up at 5.30 so unlikely anyone would be downstairs before me. Also I still walk my children down the stairs. 🙄 Oldest us 9!!

You don't let a nine year old go down the stairs on their own?

In the school I work in some of our year 3 and 4 classrooms are upstairs, just imagine if they needed somebody with them every time they went up or down them.

My 5 year old is allowed to do this, but I wouldn’t have let that happen at 3.

I wouldn’t be happy with it . Many years ago a friend used to let her three under fives do this . Until they found a tin of dark green gloss paint and painted themselves and the kitchen with it

Way too young to be left unsupervised.

He could choke, get outside, cut himself.... the list is endless.

As someone who is not a morning person I get you but you're a mum and Covid or not, if you can't get out of bed you need to put him in bed with you for 2 hours.

Failing that just leave a drink, snack and the iPad and headphones out for him.. just put a bean bag in the corner of your room for him to sit on and put a stair gate in.

You get up at 8/8:30.??? Are you for real???

I'd put a stair gate at the top of the stairs. I'm no good when I'm tired either but he's too young to be left on his own. Couldn't you go downstairs and nap on the sofa or allow him to watch tv very quietly in your room ?

My 3 year old is in a cotbed and takes cuddly toys to bed so when she wakes up she will play with them and has to wait until I go in to get her out. I dread the day she outgrows it

Fit a stair gate at the top of the stairs

Goodness, this has moved on.

OP, sickle cell anaemia is a drip feed and a half.

However:

He grabs his juice and tablet and will sit on the sofa and watch his programmes

He's only three. Here's a radical suggestion: hide the tablet. He needs a tablet just about as much as he needs to be left unsupervised in the mornings.

God forbid but in the worse case scenario something happened to him how would you feel if Social Services removed him because of neglect all for the sake of you needing more sleep! It doesn’t bare thinking about.

Please do not allow this to continue ( even if he’s a super smarty pants).

No way! I had a stair gate on our stairs to stop DD being able to come down on her own. IMO 3 years old is far too young to be unsupervised on their own for this long.