Would you do this?

[CountessDracula]

Am going away to stay in a hotel. Have a 300m range listening device (dd aged 2.8 is coming with us). There is a beach bar 50 yds away from the hotel. If we checked that the monitor worked and left a radio on in the room on low vol. to ensure that we hadn't lost connection, could we go down to beach bar in the evening or is that really bad? She almost never wakes up in the evening.

no cd is currently sunning herself in the gorgeous weather watching her dh and dd make sandcastles.

Oh, has she gone already? Even more reason for us to shut up!

this is a bit like the would you / do you leave your child in the car whilst you pay for petrol. There is no clearly defined answer the decision hasd to be based on your risk assessment of the situation and how you personally feel. The fact the question was posed suggests ther is some doubt - check out the hotel, place, peopel when you get there and then decide

northerner's post gives me food for thought, definitely. Actually I don't like the idea of strangers having access to my sleeping child and also being able to turn off the monitor. It puts a different perspecitive on telling the hotel reception that you will be out of the building.

But agree it's all about risk assessment. Also, if the monitor picks up every noise, will alert you if the monitor is turned off, and you can get back within a couple of minutes, then the minute risk of abduction is even less.

badger - actually I've got a long time as a parent of young children - 9 years so far and at least another 2 to 3 years.

Would you be happy if your baby-sitter spent the evening at the party next door? No because I've paid them to be with my children.

Would you be happy if your day-care nursery left your sleeping child inside without any staff while they took other kids outside for a bit of sunshine? Yes, as long as they check every 10 minutes or so.

Can you guarantee your baby won't get a fever/choke/get bitten by a mossie etc? No, but then again I couldn't if they were upstairs asleep in my house.

Obviously your choice, but I wonder what the law is in Britain about leaving a child unattended in a house...? cd's not leaving her dd unattended, she's got the monitor with her.

Why not take them with you in a buggy? Because they won't go to sleep and we'll have to spend all evening looking after them; with one child it's not what I want from my holiday, with four children I might as well stay at home.

Or get a local babysitter? - if you don't trust a babysitter are you worried that they won't look after them properly? - they could act more quickly and call you faster than the monitor system! Yes, happy to use babysitters. (finally something we agree on )

Go with other parents, or grandparents? We do sometimes, but sometimes it's nice to have just a family holiday with a bit of quality me and dh time.

As a rule, we tend to go for self-catering cottages with friends with children of similar age OR somewhere with babysitting but would be perfectly happy to do what cd is suggesting with younger children.

I do think there are far too many people that are not actually aware of the risks in so many of the things they do every day - eg.putting young children in front seat of car (even with child seat); not checking smoke alarms regularly; allowing young children to eat hula hoops or uncut grapes.

PS. Can't get italics or bold to work - what am I doing wrong?

Robinia - you have to surround each word (as opposed to full sentences) with asterisks to embolden.

elliott - we were at Disneyland Paris earlier this year and asked for interconnecting rooms (we have four children) but there were none left (for some reason you're not allowed to pre-book them). We put dd1 and ds1 (ages 8 and 7 at the time) in the next door room. They were able to get out but were told they mustn't unless it was an emergency. We obviously had the key (card) to their room. And we taught them how to use the telephone to get hold of us and wrote down the instructions too.

Mum2girls - really - that would've taken ages

I don't think it's taken out of perspective at allAnd I'm not suggessting Hotels are full of baby snatchers waiting to pounce. But I do know they are full of other people who have acess to your bedroom - Housekeeping, maintenance, porters, nightporters, duty managers. And Hotel rooms are so easy to break into, it is honestly rife in most hotels. Tek it from someone who knows. In my job (event management) at nearly every event in a hotel we'll have a delegate who gets something stolen from his room.
And yes, I onced worked in a hotel where a lap top was stolen from a room with an unattended sleeping child. So of course I'm not suggessting our kids will be harmed/snatched, but I wouldn't take the risk.

I have a lovely story on this topic from one of the partners I used to work with.

He and his wife were at a big Corporate Ball and had taken teh children with them. Children were about 5 and 3 years old IIRC. They were left in the room with strict instructions not to come out. In the morning the boy(5YO) told them that DD had done a poo and he couldn't clean her bum. He said he had poked his head out into the corridor waited for someone to come by and asked this nice lady to wipe his sisters bum for her!
According to his DS said lady was in full ballgown regalia!

I have always had a picture of some very posh and grand looking lady walking down the corridor minding her own business and finding herself wiping poo off some child's bum

This was many years ago - possibly when people worried less about leaving their children unattended!

I agree with Northener 100 per cent.
I woundn't dream of leaving anything valuable in an hotel room.
If there is a break in and they do happen actually... then would you be not at all worried that your baby is absolutely terrified of being in a strange room and a strange person walks in and scares the shit out of them.
On the same vein would you leave your baby in a car while you go into the supermarket and shop, but it's ok as the monitor is on! Actually I'm very startled by this thread.

soapbox
actually I can really, really, imagine ds1 doing that....

But look at what she'll have to catch up on when she gets back!

she just me and she is wankered aswell, how irresponsible

just rang

is wankered

and so is her h

tut tut

Think I would actually.

Have happily , and successfully left ds's sleeping in hotel rooms with listening services and 10 minute nip back to room visits.

And wouldn't any of us, as that ballgown-bedecked lady, have stopped off and done the bum-wiping? I know I would.

How startled? Since nearly every hotel offers baby listening, it's hardly an unusual thing to do, is it. And how many babies have you heard of being abducted from hotel rooms?
And yes, I would leave money/credit cards in a hotel room. Also there is a vast difference - people want credit cards. A three year old, no matter how enchanting to its parents, isn't high on most people's shopping lists

is this thread still going? blimey.

agree the risk of kidnap is absolutely miniscule. In fact I would have thought that a sign on the door saying "shhh baby sleeping on hair trigger" would be an excellent burglar deterrent.