Pram left overnight in the garden!

[dontcomeatme]

Definetly not "end of the world" stuff, but I got quite angry about this.
We have a double buggy that doesn't fit through our front door so needs to be built up outside every time we want to go out, not an issue. Monday mornings are nursery run mornings, I need to get the 7:20am bus. DW always at work. We're both females.
She was sorting jobs out last night while I got the baby settled for sleep. She came upstairs and told me she had built the pram up and just left it in the garden! We have never done that before and I don't like the idea of it. She said it wasn't going to rain so didn't see the issue. Problem is we saw a rat in the garden last week and after speaking with the neighbours turns out that 3 doors down have a rat problem.
I didn't shout at her but I did irritably tell her to go and get the pram in the house because I didn't want rats touching it and she said I was being absolutely ridiculous.
So..
YABU - Leaving the pram outside (weather approving) clearly saves time.
YANBU - Rats carry diseases and its not safe to leave it out.
And would you leave a pram outside at all regardless of the rats?

Get a good cover for it. Sounds a bit of a faff to have to to build it up to get it inside every time

I would be fine with it being left outside.

But that's less of an issue than the fact that your wife was being thoughtful and rather than say "thanks but the rats are freaking me out, can we cover it?" You got angry.

Rats piss a lot and if they've got leptospirosis, you can catch it from their urine.

Around 50% of rats in the UK carry lepto, and I wouldn't want to risk it, personally.

OP we live in a big city and we can’t leave anything in the garden because the foxes will decimate it - wellie boots, paddling pools, clothing, toys - they all get “played” with and smashed/ripped up. I’d love to set a night vision camera up, they’re clearly having a ball out there! x

I did say it wasn't end of the world stuff. We have a great relationship. After we discussed/disagreed with each other about the pram, she went and got it in for me while I finished bf our son and then we talked about rats for an hour 😅

See this freaks me out 🤮

I wouldn’t get angry over it but yeh besides rats all other animals may take a dump in it for fun

In the current weather I’d say it’s ok but obviously not when it’s raining. I currently have my grandchildren’s car seats out in the garden as it’s sunny and left them out overnight. I’m sure it will be ok

Oooh I’m really sorry @dontcomeatme but I’d hazard a guess that if there are that many rats outside- they’ll likely be inside too.

I'd tell you to go get it yourself in an irritable way.

This is mumsnet gold - 😂😂😂

I wouldn't have left my pram outside. We've got large flowerbeds which seems to attract snails and you cans see their snail trails EVERYWHERE in the morning.

That sounds fine, I'm glad you have a good relationship, but in your OP you say you got quite angry. If it was frustration or irritation then that's less of a problem.

It's not end of the world stuff of course and often when it's hot or you're tired the odd snap happens, but meeting even misplaced kindness with anger is a little concerning.

We didn’t realise that rats had moved into our shed until we started pulling things out. They had chewed everything fabric, fold up chairs, my husband’s bike clothing , even those polystyrene pool noodles ! Ruined them.

It wouldn’t bothwr me in the slightest but then our cats used to sleep in ours and the hens liked to perch in it so I’m perhaps bot the best judge. DD practically lived in a stable in her pushchair when little as I mucked out horses around her.

Our double pram was outside our our patio all of yesterday because I was doing a deep clean and it was getting in the way - I then forgot about it until the evening but got it in for the reasons you give, thinking about nocturnal rodents mainly.

Rodents look for nesting materials (if there’s anything that could be used on it) and spaces so YANBU. A lot of prams are minging in the tray and the seats too, full of crumbs and even some snacks. They can also climb very well and disease is a risk with rats too. I imagine you’d have some snail trails potentially if it was regularly left out.

Just calmly say “I’m quite concerned about the rats and would rather it’s kept indoors - “but thanks for thinking of me.”

The foxes round here would definitely poo in a pram left out and theres 2 cats that seem to think they own my garden at the moment too.

I wouldn't leave a pram out here purely because the animals.

Where do you leave the pram while at nursery?

Mine is left outside there all day every week day - never had any issues (other than it getting wet!)

Put the raincover over it?

I really don't think this is something that matters. Don't you have any garden toys/furniture out?

I'd probably be more bothered if it rained unexpectedly and it got ruined. I'd probably just bring it in but you could compromise and leave it outside with the rain cover on it.

I think you’re over reacting about the possibility of rats going near the pram, but I can’t imagine leaving anything like that outside and it still being there in the morning! Anything that is left outside for more than a few minutes would get stolen where I live.

Yeah, my neighbours cat, whom we love, would absolutely pee on it if we left it outside overnight.
While I get that it's a pain to bring in it, unfortunately, tough luck.

I'd just wipe over the bits that the baby is likely to come into contact with with one of those wipes that professes to kill all known germs and stick a cover on it. Babies survive being put outside to lie on grass that's got all manner of unknown stuff on it, I think the human race is generally tougher than we imagine. But being that your baby is still very little, a wipe around wouldn't hurt.