Would you let your 2.2 yo play upstairs, unsupervised but regularly checked, with your 6yo?

[Plonker]

...just curious.

God yes, all the time at 2.2 and 5.2. No monitor, but then no soundproofing in this house so can hear everything......

Yes.

No, seriously, im shocked at the amount of yes's!!
Is the 6 yr old therefore resposible for the 2 yr old?
You can't see them. A 2 year old is effectively a baby with no sense of danger and the 6 year old has no concept of safety either.
My mum remembers me being 4 and my 5 year old friend deciding I was in hospital on a life support machine (skipping rope round the neck tied to the fence. Luckily she was watching from the window as she got to the neck part of the operation!
Children can do the weirdest things so Id think twice.

I let my 5.5 and 3.5 yo play upstairs unsupervised, with frequent checks. And I even let the 15mo play too sometimes (but then I'm usually upstairs too, though not necessarily in the same room).

whensmydayoff, do you really think you have to see your children every single minute of the day? do you never go to the loo? answer the phone? deal with an overflow in the kitchen? change the baby's nappy if you have more than 2?

most experienced parents develop a very good sense of when children are up to something- they check now and again and they listen, but they do not/cannot watch every single minute of the day

a 6yo is well old enough to know never to put anything round somebody else's neck

3.5yo and 19mo play upstairs together unsupervised. Most of the time there's so much noise I know exactly what they're doing. When it goes quiet I know that they are up to no good and check on them (typically ds2 will be doing his Andrex puppy routine and ds1 spreading shampoo over the floor).

Yes - when DS2 was 2.2 DS1 would have been 4.8 and they regularly played together in their rooms upstairs - not for long as some dispute would send them screaming downstairs!

cory. Obviously, Im on MN right now doing a good job of ignoring him!
I just think the difference is at being on the same floor as them. You can get to them quicker, hear them and check them easily and more often.

errrm I would say no but then I am very anxious about safety and such.

I agree with whensmydayoff on this one. 2 year olds (or at least my 2 year old!) are such babies in many ways, do strangest of things and a 6 year old should not be responsible for them. They open drawers and could trap fingers, could pull cupboards, boxes etc on to themselves, they delve around in the toilet and throw loo rolls down there! uuurrrgh!

I am usually in the same room as my ds and if I go to the toilet he usually comes with me. Would never leave him upstairs without me unless in his cot. Maybe I am overprotective though!

Yep as long as I could hear them and the stair gate was shut.

I can hear them. The house is childproofed I dont see the problem. Maybe I am lax

issue of being on same floor depends on whether you live in a mansion or a 2-up-2-down really though doesn't it. for me it's the latter, so i can hear practically everything they're doing anyway (and often the monitor is on so i can hear it in stereo ). we don't have an upstairs bathroom, so there's only really their room to play in.

as for pulling stuff over on themselves and trapping fingers they manage that perfectly well when we're in the same room, so being up the top of the stairs really makes no odds.

i'm curious about number/ages of kids the naysayers on the thread have...

Oh god yes, I'd be driven demented otherwise! But I do make sure all hanging/poisoning/heavy objects are safe and check on them when they go quiet. I sometimes put the monitor on if I feel particularly good that day! I think it is good for children to have a 'private life'.

Yep, DCs regularly play together on a different floor to me although at 19mths its more being in the company of others rather than playing. Olders DCs are responsible enough to call me if anything dangerous is going on.
I too am surprised at the strength of reaction from those who don't - how will your DCs learn responsibilty and decision making/judgement if they are always supervised and within your sight ?

agree very much on "private life" reiki, it's good to let them get on with things without micro managing every minute, and 6/2 (which is what mine are) is perfectly old enough to begin this (within reason/regular checks/yadda yadda).

I do wonder sometimes why some parents think they have to protect their children from every little possible hurt.

I used to let ds play upstairs at my friend's house with her 4.5 yr old and 6.5 year old when he was 2.5 years old.

My friend even has a really steep spiral metal stair.case which ds just about managed to get up . I did go and help him down though and did check a few times if it went too quiet

By 6 the elder one should know what they can do and can't do-I was quite happy.

I would.

Yep I would

Yes of course, why not? They are in the same house as you. Talk about wrapping up in cotton wool!

I also let my 2 year old play upstairs by herself (no monitor, no stairgate ) when the 6 year old is at school. That's probably even more lax!

It must be very wearing if you are always in the same room.

I'm like Bramshott, I quite often leave ds alone upstairs to entertain himself. No stairgates, no monitors... I know there are no medicines/chemicals etc he can get his hands on. Most things are out of his reach, apart from his toybox, so I feel quite relaxed. If he's suspiciously quiet I wander up now and then, but to be honest, he gets bored after about 15 mins anyway and will come back down to pester entertain me.

My two are 5.5 and 2.5 and do this all the time. We have stair gates, bathroom downstairs to no issues there and a tiny house so they are always in earshot