so, how irresponsible would it be......

[MrsMc82]

...... to go to the corner shop while ds (6mo) is napping....

just want to gauge how terrible it would be to do this and if anyone actually would do it.....

would take me 5 mins to get there and back if was just grabbing some bread and milk for instance (and have even thought that i could even have the home phone next to the monitor and listen to it on my mobile? - see thought about it lots!)

main reasoning is that its a faff to the buggy out of the car and then get him in it just to go round the corner...... though is it actually illegal??

I once locked my baby in the car, with my handbag

In a deserted underground carpark

Whilst needing to pick up an older child from school, 20 minutes away (with 25 minutes to spare)

That was a bad day

I got locked out in the rain once wearing a short nightie and high heeled shoes (long story). Dd2 had slammed the door behind her as she waltzed in while I stepped out to shut the front gate. I looked like somebody in a Benny Hill sketch.

I'd like to know the rest of that story

So basically, we should never be out of grabing distance of our babies at all times? Is that what we are saying here?

Grabbing distance - I have no idea what grabing distance is. But that may be because I am irresponsible.....

I've done it!

When dd1 was a baby and I needed something from the shop about a minutes drive (OMG!!!) away. I did leave the baby monitor and a set of keys with the next door neighbour though. The worse thing about it was that a drove to the shop at about 100 mph to get there and back quickly. I think driving fast was stupid but leaving my sleeping baby was not.

since babies are totally helpless creatures, I think being in the same house/garden at the very least is what is required

No!
could you carry baby to save faffing with buggy?

I must confess that I have run, actually sprinted, to the post box and back on a small number of occasions whilst DD was younger and napping in her cot. It is about 30 yards from my front door, no roads to cross, so chances of me befalling an accident are very very slim indeed. Whole round trip about 45 seconds, if that, taking monitor with me.

Tripled checking as I left that I had the door key (I know someone who locked themselves out whilst loading the car with baby on the inside). Heart racing all the way, mind you..

It is actually further to the bottom of my garden to collect the eggs than the post box.

"since babies are totally helpless creatures, I think being in the same house/garden at the very least is what is required"

So what if I was to say that statistically, a non standing/climbing/walking baby is significantly safer lying in its cot in its own house than being taken out in a push chair or in its mothers arms, when there is a vanishingly small but actual possibility of being dropped, hit by a car, mown down by a random gun man, hit by a falling breeze block or, as actually happened to someone I know, hit by a window box falling from an upstairs windowsill.......

Seeker
I think 5 minutes down the road from the shop is a bit different to being in the garden or upstairs or borrowing tea from next door.

so, statistically-speaking....it would be better if we never took the babies out of the cots and just went about our daily business (shopping, working 8 hours a day, going on holiday etc etc), leaving them there

I get it now

I'm quite annoyed I didn't think about this...I could have saved a shedload of money on childcare when mine were small

Good for you anonymousbird I'm sure many parents would be afraid that in that 45 seconds the house would explode or something. You know, I think its really sad that we can't all just relax a bit and enjoy being parents a bit more.

This I might change my name to badbadmummy.

"Seeker
I think 5 minutes down the road from the shop is a bit different to being in the garden or upstairs or borrowing tea from next door."

WHY?

The Childrens & Young Persons Act 1933 (section 1) talks about neglecting and abandoning a child under the age of 16yrs. The thing is the legislation doesn't define those two terms. (& lets face it - my idea of abandonment & neglect are NOT what you have described.)
But I must say I agree with the comments here, I wouldn't do it either. I think more than anything...Just incase. something could happen to either of you. (That is the law of Sod!!!)

OK, well I would do it. If it genuinely were across the road or wherever and not a long walk.

So flame me.

I wouldn't purely because when I was at uni I popped to the corner shop for 2 minutes (it was the end of my road, about 2 minutes away).
A woman fell while I was there, she slipped on a wet floor and slammed her head onto a shelf knockign herself out.
Ambulance was called and she were about to be taken off still without regaining consciousness when a young boy, about 5 yrs old, who had been kicking a ball outside suddenly started crying when he realised it was his mum.

If he had been at home no-one woudl have known. If he hadn't looked up at that point no-one would have known.

yes, absolute worst case scenario, but still.

I left my two in bed last night while I went across the road to move my car. I was probably gone about 2 minutes and they were obviously fine when I got back. I thought it was the safer option than taking them both across the road to get to the car in the morning.

I'd possibly go to the corner shop if it really was only 5 mins there and back. If they know you in the shop then surely they'd wonder where your baby is if you were suddenly to collapse there.

OK. How about going down into your cellar or up into your loft? You'e much more likely to fall and knock yourself out doing either of these two things than you are popping to the corner shop.

Agree to disagree with some of the Mums!
Out of interest Seeker and Darcymum have you left your children to go to the shops. I have moved my car, dropped a package into a neighbours - probably max 2 minutes and on a small, terraced street. Just couldnt imagine leaving longer and dont think I am terribly precious in my child rearing

To answer your question Seeker its different because i can hear my child from next door or in the garden

So it's a matter of being able to hear. If the OP is out of the house for 5 minutes, evenif the baby starts to cry the instant she left the house, he sould still be crying for a shorter time than many exponents of controlled crying say is OK. How come it's OK to cry for 5 minutes when the mum is in the house but not if she's not?

The point I'm trying to make is that it's entirely understandable not to want to do this because our mother instinct won't let us, but it's not reasonable to make it into a rational decision based on a proper judgement of risk. Because there is less risk involved in leaving the baby safely in his cot. I think we ought to be honest about our motives.