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Original poster

Would you do this?

308 replies

CountessDracula · 06/06/2005 20:36

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.

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 07/06/2005 09:21

We did this, but to go downstairs to the hotel bar or down the hall to my parents' room. We didn't leave, though.

Toothache · 07/06/2005 09:25

Aloha - I would just be really paranoid about it.... totally irrational, but still pararnoid. I think too deeply about "what if's".

cod · 07/06/2005 09:26

Message withdrawn

Toothache · 07/06/2005 09:26

INcidentally... I wouldn't think twice about going downstairs for dinner in a hotel though. Would just be worried a plane dropped on the hotel whilst I was walking in the gardens. .... see... totally irrational!

cod · 07/06/2005 09:27

Message withdrawn

Blackduck · 07/06/2005 09:27

MI you are so like me.....never bothered with a babylistening device (didn't even buy one - horror - bad mummy). Rely on sticking head out of kitchen door at regular intervals......Have even - oh shame - sat in garden (at least 50 metres from house) and had a bbq whilst ds is inside snoring.......

moozoboozo · 07/06/2005 09:32

Personally, I wouldnt, but mainly because ds is a bad sleeper. But I say if you think it's right, then do it. i certainly wouldn't call it neglect. Leaving your child in the house with a DVD and a family pack of crisps while you go off to Spain for a fortnight is neglect.

motherinferior · 07/06/2005 09:46

We never bought one, Blackduck, just inherited a crappy one which didn't work

Caligula · 07/06/2005 09:47

God, it never even occurred to me to buy a listening device. I've got ears and feet.

moozoboozo · 07/06/2005 09:48

I wonder how many of us "neglect" our children while we spend hours on MN?

motherinferior · 07/06/2005 09:49

And I'm also quite serious about CD needing a break and a holiday.

We will be on holiday to Normandy in July [the bliss!] and I am very keen to sit in the hammock in the garden with a glass or two or possibly even more of wine. And if I can get DP to join me (although possibly not in the hammock ) I'll just wait for the occasional bellow to emerge from the house.

Caligula · 07/06/2005 09:54

I guess if I'd lived in an enormous mansion I might have considered one of those devices necessary. But I thought they were for the very situation CD describes - when you're slightly further away from the baby than normal.

I probably wouldn't have done it because I wouldn't have been organised enough to take a listening device. But if you've got one, that's what it's for, no? If it were me, I'd probably keep going back to check anyway, being paranoid. But if you can relax, do.

Toothache · 07/06/2005 09:56

I used a monitor even if i was just in the kitchen whilst ds slept in the living room! But with dd I only use it at night. But thats coz I sleep with ear plugs in to drown out DH's heavy breathing (read snoring)! So I have to amplify her crying so I can hear her. DH is very difficult to wake.

oliveoil · 07/06/2005 09:58

Well I would do it. But I probably wouldn't enjoy the drink as I would be thinking irrational things about fires, choaking etc.

I bob across the road to get papers sometimes when they are both asleep, takes 10 seconds. In theory, yes, something could happen in those 10 seconds. But it could happen with me in the house anyway. And I drag the bin out to be collected and leave them on their own. There are lots of times when it is physically impossible to be in 2 places at once.

I remember once going rubbernecking at a car that had crashed into our parked car in the middle of the night, with the baby monitor in my hand. Only when I got back did I realise it wasn't switched on.

acnebride · 07/06/2005 10:08

Have only read half the thread, sorry.

Would definitely do this. I never check on ds during the night and eat at the bottom of a fairly short garden without a baby monitor. Hope you have a good time!

But TBH CD I did think you were a bit rude on the thread. Sorry.

Lizzylou · 07/06/2005 10:16

Gosh, what a heated debate!
FWIW......I would prefer my lil one to be all tucked up in bed than in a a buggy asleep in a smoky bar-type environment....
If you feel confident and at ease with the baby monitors, then I think thats the way forward CD!
We do the front garden with ours and eat outside...all the while in range and knowing that we can pop up to tend to DS..........

PrincessPeaHead · 07/06/2005 10:19

I would I'm afraid. But then it is more than 50yds from where my tv is at home to the children's rooms so I'm used to that long distance sprint when required....

Toothache · 07/06/2005 10:20

I don't think they do a Monitor with a big enough range for your Manor anyway PPH!

oliveoil · 07/06/2005 10:21

Is that the East or West wing monitor PPH?

Heh heh heh

x

Mum2girls · 07/06/2005 10:21

I would.

marthamoo · 07/06/2005 10:29

50 yards is the length of two swimming pools - it's hardly miles. She's almost three and she'll be in a hotel room in Dorset, with her parents listening through a baby monitor two swimming pool lengths away. So long as the monitor works then yes, CD, I'd go for that. I can't believe people are labelling this as neglect. Insanity.

FWIW, we went on holiday to Devon two years ago - ds2 was 1. We stayed in a detached barn conversion with ds1 in the travel cot and my parents and ds1 were in the adjacent cottage. We left ds2 in the annexe every night, asleep, and spent the evening in the cottage - we used the monitor. It wasn't 50 yards away but it was a different building. I guess that was neglect too.

Marina · 07/06/2005 10:29

I'd also do this, CD, and I could worry for England ( we still use a baby monitor at home for dd, nearly 2, but only because of weird acoustics meaning we can barely hear her from downstairs).
We were in France recently in a ferme-auberge where our family room opened onto a lovely garden ("florid green environnement"). We had a nice couple of bevvies sitting in the garden with our children's open window about 25 yards away. No chunks of falling aeroplane...
I hope you get your relaxing break and your drink. LOL at the shingle beach and scudding grey clouds scenario, ah, the English seaside. Does the bar serve Bovril or Ovaltine?

mrsflowerpot · 07/06/2005 10:37

I really can't see why this is any different to using a hotel listening service - except that you are probably more likely to be listening out properly for your child than someone on reception who has other things to do as well. Go for it.

(The radio idea is a really good one too - the only time I've regretted using hotel baby monitors was once when we lost connection by moving to a different table in the restaurant and didn't realise ds was bawling until dh went up to check between courses.)

Tortington · 07/06/2005 10:44

no i wouldn't....and this bothers me. i don't know why i wouldnt considering am not your average mumsy type person. but then i wouldnt go sit at the end of the garden without taking my toddler or indeed leave them sleeping in the west wing of my mansion whilst i watched telly in the east.

we always took our kids with us - they fell asleep on the chairs in the bar area and my and my dh tookturns getting pissed

was this holiday going free? why did you book it if the childcare arrangements areconcerning you?

tarantula · 07/06/2005 10:44

Yes Id do it (not just yet tho as dd is only 17 mnths but prob next year) but would have to get a baby monitor as we dont have one. Couldnt see the point in having one TBH. Its not like we live in a mansion or anything and dd can scream for Ireland and England when she sets her mind to it.
Child is nearly three and a good sleeper so cant see any problem at all.