How sensible are 6 year olds?

[Teenagehorrorbag]

Not really an AIBU, but interested to hear views.

On a different thread (about leaving children in hotel rooms, completely separate issue so please don't confuse the two.....) we were discussing what the risks were for leaving young children alone once asleep. My Dcs are older now and you forget, but it made me wonder what the average 6/7 year old is like in terms of common sense and safety etc?

Concerns raised included - pulling a hot kettle onto themselves (they would have had to heat it first), turning on taps and flooding the place, choking on a grape, strangling themselves on a blind cord, drinking vodka from the mini bar, leaving the room and getting lost, etc.

Obviously there are other issues related to being in a hotel room etc - but for the purposes of this thread I was just curious to know what might be general risks for a 6 year old after going to sleep at night.

Waking and illness etc is covered. Just wondering about day to day stuff......

“My dd was exceptionally sensible at that age. I'm as certain as I could possibly be that she wouldn't have gone boiling kettles, drinking stuff from the minibar etc. There is absolutely no fucking way I would have left her on her own in a hotel room at that age, though. It's totally irresponsible.“

Exactly this, I’m frequently stunned by how many people would leave their child unsupervised at a young age. The main course of child injury is at home in a home setting so it’s not about familiarity or being away from highly dangerous things. It’s about keeping them safe from stupid things like jumping on the bed and smashing their face into a cabinet!

I was a very sensible 6 year old according to my parents.

When I was around that age, maybe slightly older, I slipped on a marble bathroom floor at my aunt's house in the middle of the night and hit my head on the sink (someone had spilled water and I was tired and didn't see it). I suffered concussion and needed urgent medical attention and stitches.

It's really not hard to envisage situations which a child that age shouldn't have to deal with on their own.

Exactly @flingoo - people forget that hotel rooms generally have bathrooms attached. Now what draws a preteen child’s curiosity more than unsupervised sources of water?

My DD is the kind of child to suddenly want to run a bath alone because it seems really grown-up. Or to plug up the sink with wet loo paper to see what would happen. Or to develop a trampolining routine on the bed…

I don’t leave DD at 8 in the bath alone without being around upstairs listening and doing something in a nearby room. The idea of going off and leaving her with access to a bathroom and no supervision is unthinkable.

Not to mention porn or unsuitable stuff on the TV, access to the internet etc.!

Even if she was asleep the whole time there’s the risk of fire and not being able to get to your child. Just no.