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.

I would do the baby-listening thing when my kids were babies and not able to walk, as they were safe in their cot, however both were out of their cots before they were 2, and there is no way I would do it now that the boys are in beds.

I think a toddler roaming the room and getting into trouble is a more likely potential risk than a baby choking on his vomit.

Last time stayed in a hotel in Dorset (the Dormy) they wouldn't do baby-listening but used Sitters to provide a baby-sitter (£50 per night - ouch)

I would recommend a baby-sitter for a toddler, for maximum peace of mind

I would CD, wouldnt sit getting pissed in the bar obviously, but as long as the monitor was on and DP wouldnt mind strolling up every so often
its not like your leaving her in a hut with no doors on the beach.

We have used a monitor in small hotels while drinking in the hotel bar. Where we could have a drink and relax knowing ds was asleep in the travel cot. However I am petrified of fire , my house burned to the ground when I was 3 and this is one of my earliest memories. So when we holiday abroad I take the children with us till the latest point that they are tired and we go back to the hotel, I am so scared to leave them in a larger hotel incase it goes on fire and we can't get to them, I know its sounds ridiculous but its a worry of mine!

DD was just 2, stayed in UK hotel. She was in cot and excellent sleeper. Had dinner in hotel. Used system where we dialed reception on hotel phone and left phone off the hook so reception listened in every 15 mins. She did wake up once and they came and got us, no way of knowing if she had been crying for 1 minute or 15 minutes which I felt bad about. I would do what CD suggests if her child is in cot. Once DD out of cot I won't use hotel listening as too worried she will turn on kettle, flood sink or similar.

It is much harder to leave older children in the room than younger.

I now have to book a babysitter if we want dinner/drinks on our own.

Thats why I think CD should make the most of this while she can - by next year it probably won't be an option.

Having said that most hotels will recommend someone for you if you ask. Last weekend we had a lovely Polish chambermaid looking after our DCs. They had a lovely evening of fun with her, we had an adult dinner with some lovely friends. In teh scheme of hotel bills and dinner £20 seemed a reasonable price to pay

Just read the title of this thread. Hotels that we've stayed at with dds offered a baby listening facility. That meant we left the 'phone off the hook, and every 10 mins they'd listen in to see if either were crying.

Didn't fancy it at all, but I'm a wimp. I think you deserve your night.

I would. We don't use a baby monitor at home and although our house isn't big it's long, so when we're in the kitchen it feels like we're miles away from the kids! So to be using a monitor would feel more than adequate - go for it and have a relaxing wonderful holiday!

I'm with prettybird and the others.
I would do it, while popping back every now and then (purely for my own peace of mind. Probably not every night, but at least one or two nights. Should be fine, esp. as your girl is a sound sleeper. Go with your own instincts - the very fact that you are considering all the risks shows that you are responsible enough to make your own decision.

can I ask - those who recommend baby-sitters in hotels - how does that work logistically if you only have one room? do you ask the sitter to sit in the dark and not have the telly on or do you have kids that will sleep through anything? just wondered coz I've never managed to work it out?

I remember my parents leaving me alone in a hotel room when I was little, while they were at a concert downstairs. The only thing monitoring me was the hotel reception 'babysitting' service. I was rather older than CountessDracula's child - around 6, maybe - and therefore theoretically capable of getting out of the hotel room. I was also rather a sleepwalker. However - no ill befell me, I slept through the whole experience and don't consider my parents to have been neglectful. With hindsight, the knicker-throwing might have been interesting though... (Tom Jones, c1978, Owensboro, Kentucky)

Sorry to be a party pooper, but I would not leave any of my children alone in a hotel room.I worry that I would not be able to get back to the room in the event of a fire, ok all hotels have smoke alarms, but I've experienced how hot and disorientating it can be to be in a room full of smoke and how quickly a fire can take hold.

hatstand, i've always assumed the babysitter would sit on a chair in the hallway outside the room. otherwise i couldn't see how it would work.

for those of you who don't use baby-listening or monitors - what do you do on holiday?

we've just come back from 3 weeks in France and used the monitor when we put dd 28 months and ds 14months to bed while we were in mum and dads caravan in the same pitch and even with the monitor on we didnt always hear her getting out of bed, and would see her stood by the door.

if you can get yours to sleep on hols brill coz in the end we gave up and was walking round the campsite at 10.30ish and even then she didnt go to sleep.

Suppose what i'm trying to say is that if u know your child is unlikely to wake once asleep then the decision is yours, i could prob do it with ds coz he hardly ever wakes up but dd another matter i'm afraid.

it is not neglect, or well i dont think so. like has already been said, some houses, gardens etc more than 50yds.

actually might start a thread on how to keep them asleep all night, but prob been done time and time again, tried the letting scream etc.

bossykate,

put the children asleep in their beds and raid the mini bar usually

are they sleeping in the same room or do you have interconnecting rooms? can't see how it wouldn't be v. miserable for the grownups unless you had a separate sleeping space for the kids....

wow paranoid parenting gone totally beserk.

of course you should go and have drinks at beach bar. the staff will be listening out for dd as well as you with your monitor.

f-goodness-s (note not offending any believers ) using terms like neglect in this context is just insane.

Well when we stayed in Disneyland hotel we were all in the same room. We used to pretend to go to sleep for the children's benefit, and when they were both soundly snoring (usually took about 10 minutes), we would put on subdued lighting and read books plus quaff miniatures of Jack Daniels - boy we know how to live.

hmc, good for you! however, i would rather not go somewhere than have to spend the evenings that way! horses for courses etc.

I agree that 'neglect' is far too strong and not appropriate.

But I don't think it is paranoid not to want to leave your children in a 'strange' room on their own, sleeping soundly or not.

Just a personal preference thing. Each to their own

Yes, CD, i would go to the beach bar. I would send dh back to the room to check on them every 20/30 mins, i'd tell the receptionist that your kids are on their own upstairs and leave your mobile number with them. I wouldn't go any further than the bar and probably wouldn't stay for more than a couple of hours. We regularly stay in hotels and go downstairs for food/drink leaving the kids upstairs. Our dt's are nearly 3 and we ditched the monitor at 18months

of course not hmc, preferring not to leave them alone in strange room is entirely your prerogative and entirely the right decision for you and your family....you're not saying what the other posters seem to be that if cd goes down to beach bar the hotel will burn down and people will kidnap her child who will have been utterly traumatised already by waking up without her smiling mother there to immediately comfort her (as she will have taken oooo, 1 1/2 minutes to get there when she heard her dd wake up through the monitor) are you???? you're being totally reasonable, but lots of people on this thread aren't imo!

Normally we always go for interconnecting rooms, but the weekend just past, we were in a big family room. Children were up and about with babysitter until 9ish then she put them to bed and read magazines with a bedside light on.

On our proper holidays we let the children stay up and they come with us to dinner/bar most nights. However we always try and have a couple of nights just the two of us and get a babysitter in for this. I would find it very hard to leave children on their own who are awake and when mine are on holiday they don't go to sleep before 9-9.30 at the earliest.

With interconnecting rooms, dining on the patio or balcony outside our room has worked well in the past.

bossykate - we don't go on holiday in a hotel!
Seriously I wouldn't go to a hotel unless we had separate sleeping space. I woudl use baby listening for a baby in a cot but I think would be wary once they are 'free-roaming'. Then it would have to be a small hotel I think. We are trying it for the first time in July...
I think CD's set up sounds absolutely fine but would probably decide for myself once I got there.

My own 'close shave' was putting ds1 to bed in a tent (in his own zipped up compartment) and retiring to a communal area about 50m away to eat (it was a big group camping thing, lots of tents in the same field btu all eating centrally). We checked up on him regularly, and knew he wasn't asleep (could hear nursery rhymes coming from the tent) - at about 10pm I went to check on him and found him wondering down the field naked(in the opposite direction to us) - having shed his many layers, unzipped his compartment and crawled out of the front door of the tent. He was 2.5! He claimed to be looking for a potty
So I think I would be wary of putting him in a hotel room anywhere big enough for him to get lost...

I think this is one of those things that you need to check out once you get to the hotel and see how happy you are about the set-up.

I don't think I could do it with my dd aged 2y 6m because I wouldn't know what to do with the door. I didn't think you were allowed to lock children into rooms but I couldn't leave the door unlocked incase dd woke up and walked out the room. Since your DD is still in a cot and doesn't climb out, I think you're in a lsightly different position. If the hotel is quite secure (i.e. random strangers cannot walk the corridors - everyone has to walk past reception to get to their hotel rooms) then i'd leave her door open and let reception know where you are.

As a student I worked in a hotel in Dorset, which provided human baby listening, girls stationed along the corridor listening out at doors! Why didn't you choose that one?!

BTW _ I can see how some people might interpret it as neglectful. In the worst possible scenario, two parents leave their child in a hotel room and go to the bar and get very drunk, don't hear the monitor, something happens to the child. If we saw that in the newspapers we'd all be tut-tutting. I'm sure that's not what you and your DH are going to do and it is different but it's not always clear to everyone where the line of distinction is.