What age would you leave a child in a hotel room?

[TipsyBlueOtter]

If you're in the same building? I'm just talking about popping down for a drink in the hotel bar after he's asleep, say from 9-11pm. It's a small (posh!) boutique hotel about the same size as a large house. DS is 9 and sensible. We'd normally get an in-room babysitter for a couple of hours to sit in the corner while he was asleep and that was what I planned to do this time, but he thinks he's a bit old for that now so I wondered if I was being PFB for suggesting it? He's a good sleeper and unlikely to wake up once asleep. He doesn't have a phone but we could leave him one of ours and there is a landline in the room.

15

Yes but you were 7 and not 9 and no one had warned you! Of course you were frightened. A 9 year old is significantly older, and they will know exactly where their parent is, not just wake in a strange room and have no idea where anyone is!!! Plus the 9 year old wants to do it. Completely different scenario.

OP ii think this is fine for a confident 9 year old who wants to do this. I would give them a way of contacting you and tell them not to leave the room themselves (assuming it's a larger hotel) or answer the door to anyone. I would also run through with them what to do in the event of a fire alarm or any other emergency scenario.

What is so much that you find attractive in a hotel bar?

DH and I started leaving DD in a hotel room for an hour or two when she was 13 - she’s a night owl so it wasn’t a question of leaving her in the evening, but sometimes we get back to the hotel mid-afternoon after sightseeing, she wants to chill for a while and we want to potter out for a coffee and some people-watching. She can always phone and is sensible. We left her at home alone for brief periods first when she was 10.

If you read my posts @bakedFishandChips I explain. I had planned to get a sitter, but my DS feels it's babyish and would rather stay in the room on his own. It made me wonder whether I was being PFB and overprotective so I wondered what other people thought. In the very specific context of this very small B&B style hotel, with one staircase and exit.

It's not so much that the hotel bar is attractive, as that sitting in the dark in silence from 8.30 until adult bedtime is less attractive. Sometimes it's nice to leave the room your child is sleeping in? Don't think that makes me Keith Richards. I'm not a particularly big drinker but rest assured I would be perfectly capable of drinking wine sitting on a bed if I wanted to.

For what it's worth, as I've already said upthread, I still feel he needs a sitter. But I think the varied responses show that it's arguable and I've found it interesting hearing what people thought. Probably closer to 11 for me, in this scenario - end of primary school. Would be later in a larger hotel with floors / fire doors between us, and later still if I was leaving the building.

A babysitter you know well? Or… not?

@Lime90 i usually just find the nearest tramp smoking crack and offer them £5. Yes a sitter we know well and have used before.

Never look what happened to madeleine McCann

I personally would be ok with this.
We Left our children after they were asleep after the age of 7 to go to the restaurant where we were staying.With regular checks. In the 90s it was absolutely normal pre Maddie .
Absolutely no reasonable parent would expect their child to be kidnapped before this happened to Maddie.

I left mine upstairs in a hotel room at that age, but that was in the 80s. I was a young parent and it was ‘the done thing’. In hindsight, I wouldn’t do the same again. Of course these days they can ring you from a mobile phone, but there is the risk of fire, or confusion. If they wake up and open the room door to look for you, they are vulnerable to sinister strangers.