When did you let your children play alone in their bedrooms?

[starsareshining]

My son has just turned three. He now has some lovely but large toys which are in his bedroom. We're not really up there very often and it seems a shame for him to be stuck downstairs when there are a lot of nice things upstairs. Of course, I would play with him too, but I'm currently trying to encourage him to play alone. There really isn't much for me to do upstairs, so would it be odd for me to leave him up there to play?

I would think it would be odd if children didn't play alone in their rooms. But we're on one floor so stairs/hearing distance isn't an issue.

I encouraged mine to play in their rooms from the day they moved into their own rooms - lying in the cot gurgling at first

Also we never had stairgates or any other safety stuff. Luckily we never had any accidents either

Apart from an incident where DS cut the corner of his pillow case, and another when they were playing very quietly I went upstairs and found my bright red nailvarnish all over my room and DD tried to blame it all on DS..... they have played great up there. I did (and still do) check on them fairly frequently though, especially when it all cwent quiet.

DD has been playing by herself since she was able to play. outside of a playpen and unwatched since she learned to climb out of her cot.

I have for ages (my DS is nearly 4). I haven't had a stairgate since he could walk properly either.

Hi stars we are waiting for an appointment at GOSH with an endocrinologist (Mr Brain I think), expect it in January. I convinced myself last month that he has Russell Silver syndrome - now I am much less sure, but want to get some opinions anyway on what might be going on. Where are you taking DS? Am dreading needles etc for DS2 now, your poor little DS, it sounds like it was very distressing, but at least he will forget it, unlike you .

DS2 is also in proportion and developing normally, other than his size. Very happy baby. Feeding him is a constant battle though, he is so picky and eats such small amounts - drives me crazy sometimes!He seems to do best on small meals every couple of hours. He also still has at least 3 night feeds (still bf as afraid to stop in case he stops growing altogether and also I can't face that many nighttime formula feeds!) so I am a zombie as a result of this and the other two DC's waking early, they seem to have some kind of relay system arranged so that one of them always wakes up by 6am even if the other sleeps til a more sociable time . Does your DS eat well?

I didn't realise that people didn't let them play alone! By 3 yrs they can manage the stairs and come and go as they please. It must be very restrictive to always be in the same room. Just check on him if he goes really quiet.

Lamorna, I never said that I don't let my son play alone. We have three downstairs rooms which he wanders in and out of at his leisure. Also, if you'd read the rest of the thread you'd have seen that my son isn't very good at managing the stairs due to his small stature. We will now be practising this, but I have recently been suggesting that he play in his bedroom and he doesn't want to stay up there without me, so this question could be redundant anyway!

sleepwhenidie, he did get over the needles very quickly. There were at least three people in there as well as myself, my mom and my son, and they're very keen for it to be as painless as possible. So lots of nurses distracting them with toys/bubbles/stickers as it's happening. I think the fact that he didn't actually see the needles helped. He just knew that something hurt and then it stopped hurting.

My son is quite picky, but no more than other children his age. He'll eat very small amounts of meals with us at the table ('Bet you can't eat anymore!' works well because he's very keen to prove that he is a big boy) but I usually offer fairly healthy snacks throughout the day too. And, because I offer a choice of two or three things, he always chooses one and then eats the majority of it. Hasn't quite realised that he can refuse all of them :)