Would You Leave Your Baby Home Alone To Pop To The Shops?
A Mumsnet post has prompted a debate about whether its ok to leave a baby home alone [Photo: Rex Features]
Picture the scene. You’ve just put your baby down for his lunchtime nap. With any luck this will mean two hours of baby-free time. Woo hoo. You could have a cuppa, tidy the house, but you know you’ve got to nip to the shops and it would be way, way easier to do so without a fussy baby attached to your hip. Can you pop out and leave them sleeping? Should you pop out and leave them sleeping?
A similar dilemma has been posed by one new mum to the parenting site Mumsnet and it has sparked a lively online debate involving nearly a thousand parents.
The mum posted her comment asking whether anyone would leave a ten-month-old baby sleeping at home alone for seven minutes. Adding that her baby “napped reliably at the same time everyday for at least an hour” and the situation would involve a parent who was going to a shop to collect something approximately 50 metres away.
Some parents think its ok to leave a sleeping baby, others not so much [Photo: Rex Features]
The to-leave-or-not-to-leave question has divided parents with some saying they’d never even consider it. Others were more open to the idea, dependent on the circumstances and a third camp said they had left their children to do chores in the garden or walk the dog and didn’t see anything wrong with it.
In the no way never camp comments ranged from “Absolutely not - that’s bonkers. 7 minutes is long enough for lots of things to happen.” to “Hell no! I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t.”
"Today 7 minutes. Tomorrow 15 minutes. Who knows what time limit you’ll be justifying next week,” added another commentator who clearly opposed the idea.
“Er, no. Even though it’s super tempting, I quite often want to shift my car when it’s parked 100 yards away and a space comes free next to the house. But I don’t do it as it’s just not worth it!!” voiced another.
Others, however, pointed out that leaving a baby in those circumstances was more or less as risky as going outside in the garden or having a shower.
“It’s logically as risky as having a shower (where you can’t hear s**t) or going in the garden to sunbathe hang out washing when they’re asleep. You’re hardly constantly monitoring them then either. It’s irrational to think popping out for 7 min is any different,” wrote one parent.
And other parents admitted to doing it themselves.
“I went to the shop once, needed milk and he was asleep. He was in that deep sleep they have when they first nod off. I was 5 mins and don’t need to cross any roads. I did a risk assessment and summarised that it would be far risker for him to wake in the night cross because of lack of milk!”
The law is unclear on whether you’re allowed to leave a baby [Photo: Rex Features]
The original poster rejoined the discussion to say that she had already chosen to leave her baby earlier that morning, so merely wanted to see if others would have done the same. Going on to justify her trip she said:
“I did try and think through every possible risk: Fire? We don’t smoke, no appliances left on. Kidnap? He’d have to get through two locked doors first. Waking and crying? Possibly, but she hasn’t woken early for months and even if she did it would have only been a few minutes. Vomiting? Never happened during nap time before. Something happening to me? Walking 50m crossing no roads? Really?”
Revealing the reason for her going out was to collect a parcel of clothing ordered online, she said: “We live in a flat with no lift so my reasoning was it would be easier to get them while she was sleeping as I wouldn’t have been able to carry her and the boxes up the stairs at the same time.”
She admitted to feeling “incredibly anxious before, surreal during and extremely relieved afterwards” but said she had a busy day ahead and “selfishly” wanted to try them on “in peace.”
So what’s the actual law on leaving a baby or child? Well it seems it’s a bit of a grey area as though the law doesn’t specify an age when you can leave a child on their own, it is an offence to leave a child alone if it places them at risk.
A Government website encourages parents to use their judgement before leaving children alone or in a car.
But the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) believes children under 12 are rarely mature enough to be left alone for a long period of time, children under 16 shouldn’t be left alone overnight and babies, toddlers and very young children should never be left alone.
Would you leave your baby in the house alone? Let us know @YahooStyleUK
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