Toddler left alone - is this acceptable?

[NamechangeApril2025]

A newly walking 14 month old left alone in a room while sole adult went out (for maybe a few minutes) to the garden on the other side of the house.

Room has a baby gate but is not a babyproofed room.

No. Take the child. It isnt that hard. They could have pulled anything over on themselves.

Unless the house is really big and the toddler wouldn't be heard I don't think there's an issue. It wouldn't be any different to going to the toilet or to the kitchen to make a drink or prep food.

A bit more detail would be useful, if they were just nipping out to the bin I think that’s fine, if they were ten minutes chatting to the neighbour across the fence and out of eyeline that’s less good.

in the garden? I used to go out to put washing out , take the bins out and I’ve never thought this was an issue. Pop out to the shops absolutely not but still within the land of the property no issue

I would probably either contain the child such as in a playpen or take them with me at that stage.

I think it's fine unless the house and garden are huge or the house isn't appropriately baby proofed.

Wouldn’t bother me, but it obviously has bothered you, OP. You’ll get a mix of responses here, as everyone has different risk profiles and feelings about this stuff, so not sure how helpful it’ll be.

"Not a baby-proofed room"

This is the crucial piece of info - what sort of things might have happened in that room while the adult was elsewhere?

At 14m old, mine would have been toddling about after me.

It's fine assuming the basics are in order like babyproofing and checking for hot cups of tea and locked doors.

Depends on the room. My own house which is pretty much got nothing at toddler level and definitely nothing dangerous -it’s fine!

My parents house where I am now and I can spot several potential things to either break, make a huge mess or be injured by - not so fine!

So it depends a lot on your definition of not a baby proofed room!

It depends. I went outside last week because our Gazebo was being blown around and it needed tying down properly. I was less than 5 minutes and while I was gone my 8 year old managed to smash a plate and cut her foot. I'm not sure you can ever be too careful at any age but a few minutes in earshot is normal surely?

And she could've done the same while you are in the room.

Id have popped a 14 month old in playpen

What does that mean not baby proofed? Glass or heavy objects in easy reach to pull down/over themselves, absolutely not. If it’s just that things could be climbed on, this isn’t likely to happen to a just walking toddler.

Do people carry their toddlers round everywhere? No different than going to the toilet, getting a drink/snack.

I don't want to go into loads of detail but toddler wouldn't have been heard from the garden. There are heavy things that could have been pulled over but nothing glass or hot.

Adult was going to do something more involved and that would take longer than putting something in the bin but wasn't going out for 10 minutes.

Interested by some of the responses here, thanks.

Absolutely love these threads. More than 2 but less than 10, harder than putting the bins out but easier than evicting an angry badger from the house, can't say what as too outing but think we run the only residential water mill in the three counties region.

Personally, I wouldn't leave a just walking 14 month old alone in the room, where they could pull heavy things onto themselves.

Who is this you're pissed off with?

Your Nanny?? Your DH?? Grandparents??

Hopefully a conversation about it will sort it all out, I assume your toddler wasn't hurt otherwise you'd have said, which I agree maybe just good luck, but there's really no advantage in having a go about it and causing bad feeling no matter who it was.

If this is just one thing in a series of bad judgements then maybe you need to look at who is doing the childcare and maybe changing that?!

I would have been fine with that, although in our house I tended to take mine with me, because if I was going to another room it was usually on another floor (townhouse), until they were comfortable with stairs. I had no problems with leaving them in a room on their own. Never had dcs pulling over furniture and we weren't strict about baby proofing.

My house is small enough that this wouldn't be an issue!

Put them in the pram and take them for fresh air while you hang the washing out

I’d say fine to be honest. Mine didn’t walk until 16 months and I couldn’t really carry her everywhere.

If this is your house, you need to baby proof all the rooms
Toddlers don't accept just staying where they're supposed to

Probably being a bit precious imo. I'd likely have jumped in the shower for 5 mins when mine were that age if they were watching a TV show and in a childproofed room they couldn't get out of.

Who are you annoyed with? I definitely left my toddlers unattended for a few minutes back in the day when parents were generally more relaxed 🤷‍♀️
I would always have been within screaming distance though.