To briefly leave my children unattended?

[littleducks]

I live in a massionette block to get to my front door you need to climb four flights of stairs. Directly below my front door and kitchen window is a small childrens playpark with a fence and gate. At times i have trouble getting my children 2 and 4 months up the stairs with my shopping. I have a double buggy which i cannot negotiate the stairs and balcony with. I generally take the kids out fold buggy put it in my small shed at the bottom of the stairs and leave any non perishable stuff in the shed until someone else is home or kids asleep etc.

Today my eldest was feeling a bit peaky after a jab yesterday, i went to the supermarket to get milk, eggs and dishwasher salt etc she fell asleep in the buggy. So i left the buggy parked with both kids in the playpark while i carried the shopping upstairs so not to disturb her with the intention of the sitting in the park after the milk was in the fridge till she woke.

I went upstairs, two community police officers on bikes stopped thinking my children had been abandoned. I called to them that they were my children and the caretaker who i had told i was leaving kids in park to run shopping upstairs then not hearing me explained.

The cpos then proceeded to tell me when i returned that i should be more careful as someone could come and run off with my children. I said i was surprised to hear that from the police as i was trying to avoid bringing my children up ?in a climate of fear? I explained i could see them at all times and had to carry shopping there is no lift etc. That dd was asleep and i didn?t want to wake her as then she would cry and not let me go back downstairs to collect shopping if i left the shopping at the bottom of the stairs. I also pointed out i had informed the caretaker who was clearing rubbish not far away. They did finally agree that as i could see them it wasn?t an unreasonable thing to do but told me to be more careful.

They were nice and polite enough but did leave me feeling judged, even though in hindsight i don?t think is was irresponsible to do. Am i completly wrong on this????

How about the stairs and small children? That reason alone is enough that my HA won't move people with small children in. I'll look into it and see how much is their call and how much is in the code.

Thank you! Something i could quote would be good if there is anything but I dont think they will budge easily as it would then mean everyone needed moving and it is always people with babies who are moved here.

The are currently refurbishing and have put in a new wider front door so that is wheelchair acessible, i didnt no what to say when the builder proudly informed me thats what they were doing!

Um... how do they propose you get the wheelchair up there in the first place? I take it this is in the name of 2010 Decent Homes?

I love working with the HA, the things I know scare me sometimes!

YANBU - until recently we lived in a flat up 4 flights of stairs, no lift w. ds1 age 2 and ds2 3 mo. Total bl**dy nightmare. You just do the best you can.

They also spent extra time putting a spy hole in the front door, it has two glass panels!

I wouldn't say you were being unreasonable. I think you have to make these decisions and weigh up risks all the time as a parent.

Sometimes with hindsight you may have done something differently but hindsight is a wonderful thing....

It seems to me that everyone making negative comments about this has never lived in this situation.

I personally only live up one flight of stairs in a flat but I have had to leave Ds alone either for in the flat at at the bottom of the stairs on many occasions for a few seconds.

Sometimes I go downstaairs and strap him in the car and realise I've forgotten domething and I run back upstairs. Our car is generally parked at the back of the flats in a private parking area and visible from my flat but nonetheless he is still left alone for about 30secs to 1 min or so.

It is frankly not possibble to never do this and get on with any sort of living at all. Even taking the rubbish out involves going down the stairs and out of the back of the flat.

My choice is to take ds (which I often do), take it out while I'm going out anyway with ds (which I do also if I'm not carrying too much already) or to leave it stinking in the flat. Wery occasuionally when ds is asleep (or now when he is watching TV) I do take the rubbish out and leave him in the flat.

Those who say 'Can't you live somewhere else? really need to stop being so smug. Most of us in small flats with no lifts do not choose to live there with children because we think it is a good ides. It is usually because we can't afford otherwise.

I sympathise. ATM, I live in a small block of flats. There are steps up to the front door and no ledge by the front door IYSWIM. At the moment, I park DD at the bottom of the steps up to the front door, run and open the door (up 6 steps so no distance/time) hoick the buggy up and then go back for shopping.

I worry about the 30 seconds (if that) that DD is in the buggy at the bottom of the stairs but think it is so unlikely that anything would happen and so difficult to do anything else that it has to be done, as it was in your case.

I've not found anything out about the stairs issue yet, however, have you thought of putting yourself on the exchange register? I've seen comments from people who had moved 5 weeks after putting their name down. There are a few sites you could try like that one.