Hotel room on holiday - baby monitor and restaurant

[Northby]

Hello everyone
I've just been reading a thread where people were saying how much easier it is to go on holiday at a hotel rather than a self catered apartment. I had a genuine, if possibly stupid, question.

If your kids are in a hotel room and you have a video baby monitor, would you think it was ok to use a hotel facility? Like a restaurant downstairs. The door is locked, you can see and hear the kids via the monitor.

I don’t live in a palace so I feel like being a couple of minutes rather than up to ten seconds away is too far, in case something happens. (Also Madeline McCann’s story is seared into my mind as it happened when I was growing up.)

I’m curious, what does everyone else do?

Take them with you. They sleep in a pushchair, if they are too old for a pushchair you have dinner earlier.

What do you do all evening if they're asleep in the hotel room with the lights off?

Never. Take them with you or eat earlier.

You sit there in the dark and realise what a holiday with children looks
like, and accept quietly that this is your life now.

if you need to scream, do it into a pillow or on the balcony or you will wake them (and the night is even worse is the dark, in a hotel room, with a crying child.)

No, you don’t leave your baby/young child in a hotel room alone.

I would never put myself more than around ten seconds away from my sleeping baby or child (so approx time it takes to stop what I'm doing and run up from any of the rooms in my house or garden).
Just because you have a camera on them doesn't mean it stops bad things happening (including abduction). Only difference would be that you would see it (hopefully, but also down at restaurant you could take eyes off screen and get distracted too!)
Never mind possibility for sudden signal issues, technical problems, lost battering getting locked out of room unexpectedly or anything that may slow you down even more than the 1-2 mins back to room (already a long time in my opinion) leaving a child who is alone and scared having woken for whatever reason. If someone did get in the or anything else scary you would be too far away too help.
Even worse if something happened to you and nobody knew to rush back to your room and care for your child!
Just wouldn't even dream of this

It’s not ok to leave a child in a hotel room alone. Eat early and as above poster says accept that for a short period this is what your life is like; take them with you to fall asleep in a pushchair or take willing grandparents/family with you to share the childcare.

• lost battery!

Haha, thanks.

I was questioning my decision to do self catering so we could have a holiday home with a separate bedroom for the kids in the face of all the people on Mumsnet saying they would only ever stay in a hotel with young kids, but feeling more comfortable with that choice right now.

We are off on holiday today. Wish us luck!

I don't care what MN says family rooms are dismal and don't make for a good holiday. S

I think it depends on the hotel tbh a massive ai with thousands of people no way a smaller hotel maybe. We did it once in a small hostel the only exit was past where we were sitting only 3 other family's and a couple of younger folk staying (who did the same that evening and joined us) was also in middle of nowhere with no passing traffic.
We risk assessed it and decided it would be fine. We normally go self catering so we don't have this problem, us all sleeping in the same room is a recipe for disaster.

@MissScarletInTheBallroom book a more suitable hotel room, with a balcony or somewhere to go and play cards away from sleeping child. Put a lamp on, they will fall asleep at some point if they are awake while you are playing cards or chatting let them it's a holiday not a prison.

Find a hotel that has apartments, then you use the living space after you have all dined. Send partner to bar for drinks

No I'd never. That's why we usually do some sort of self-catering apartment or a suite type thing if in a hotel, so there's a separate room or balcony we can relax on when DC is in bed. Tbh on a holiday with young DC it's pretty shattering so it's not like we want to be up drinking till the early hours! So usually just play cards or chat over a glass of wine, or watch a film. That's life with young kids!

I think evening Spa/pool access for adults should be standard in child friendly hotels so that one parent can enjoy that while the other stays in the room with the kid and then switches. I'd not enjoy dinner/bar etc by myself but the thought of an hour or so to use pool/steam/sauna by myself would be bliss.

Never. Never ever would I do this

Surely the awful story of little Madeline McCann has taught us all around the world that children are not safe to be left alone on holiday?!!

Wtf. No chance I would ever do this. Honestly, you have a baby, you have to suck it up, either take them with you or pay for a babysitter

🤣 yep this OP. Ideally you get two rooms so they are asleep in one.

We stayed in a hotel with a 6 month old once. We tried to keep her with us at the table to have a meal but it was a disaster so one of us took her back to the room. When the mains arrived the one who had stayed ate theirs and then came up to the room and swapped with upstairs parent who then came down to eat that plus pudding before swapping again. Ridiculous but at least we both got fed. After that we booked self catering!

I can remember sitting on a duvet on the toilet floor for an evening playing a handheld video game whilst the kids failed to sleep 😴 n the attached video room.
If you are abroad, sitting on the balcony is an option.
I wouldn’t leave them, suppose there was a fire?

No, nothing to do with abduction, but because they wouldn't let you back to the room during a fire alarm. Unfortunately it's just not an option - think again.

Don't be so stupid.

No absolutely not.

I’d rather stay at home than all be in one room sitting in the dark!

We booked self catering so we had somewhere to chill out if they wanted to sleep but we mostly took them out late for dinner. Not super late but didn’t stick to bedtimes like at home.

But no don’t leave them in a hotel room!

Of course not!
Options are to keep them up late, walk endlessly around the hotel with the pushchair until they fall asleep and then go for dinner (and then, when you get back, park the pushchair in the bathroom), hang out on the balcony or just lie on your bed with headphones watching TV on your device, listening to a podcast or reading on a kindle