Playing in their room alone?

[dulcemariamar]

How old was your LO when you let your LO play alone in their room?

flameful confession: i was reading the toddler -month-by-month guide over on the bump and they said that if you want to get an extra hour of sleep in the morning, then just leave your 15 month tot with a sippy and dried cereal in their child-proofed bedroomnd go back to bed. 

is that too young to leave a kid alone in their bedroom? Would you trust your 15 month old to eat alone while you sleep?

what says MM. It sounds crazy to me but I am a FtM.

[hocus2]

Nope. We used to have a love seat in my son's room and I would sometimes snooze on that while he was playing but I don't leave him alone in his room now and he's 2.5. I would leave my four year old in her room for long periods though.

[thatgirl2478]

ehhh... that would have been pushing it in our house. Though, I would leave her alone in her CRIB while I slept. DD is 3 now and I have trusted her to play alone for a few months, but not while I'm sleeping...

[gibbinator]

I'd leave him alone in his crib with a sippy. If he was able to get out of the crib and his room was actually toddler proofed, I'd be ok leaving him locked in if he was happy. I'd be too nervous to let him eat food on his own though.

I admit I definitely nodded off for 15mins a couple afternoon's ago while sitting on the couch in the sun while ds was playing with crayons. Lucky that didn't end in a disaster haha.

[undecidedowl]

A happy kid in a crib is fine alone at any age.

Not contained, I still don't leave 25 month old DS alone in his room more than a few minutes. But his room isn't super baby proofed. If I was confident there was nothing he could damage or get hurt on I would let him play alone.

[hski2349]

15 month would not have worked in our house. DD did not like being left alone for a long period of time (pretty much anything over let me run upstairs to grab something) at that point

[speckledfrog]

This is one of those "know your kid" things. I often brought DS into my room and let him play while I slept more when he was that age. I also let him play unsupervised out of my sight. He's not a mouther, he's not a choker, he's pretty reserved and I know I won't walk in to find him scaling the blinds or climbing on top of the dresser. Not every mom can say this and some kids absolutely need more supervision to keep them safe. That being said, I'm still nervous about him eating unsupervised because you can't hear when someone is choking.

[spanikopita]

I don't let my 4 year old eat alone. That is irresponsible in my book. My kid still takes bites that are too big, etc, and choking is a big fear of mine.

Playing in his room alone (without food) has been normal for us since he dropped naps at 2.5.

[Marmee]

I don't know...in a crib ok. But just in a room, it'd depend. Likely I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway but awake I would as long as I was within earshot & was sure it was baby proofed decently. But also depends on the kid...must I re tell the story of DD1 & the tweezers in the electrical socket. She wasn't quite 2 then. She would find trouble in a padded cell...DD2 & 3 completely different story. I could leave them with 3 toys & they'd be occupied for an hour. DD1 would be into something within 2 minutes!

[drloretta]

You're believing what TB says???

[meltoine]

I let DS1 start playing in his room or the playroom alone when we was old enough to walk away from me to go there, so maybe around that age.

I don't think I'd leave him there while I slept, but I did bring him into my room and let him play on the floor while I dozed from 7-8 months. I would not give him food, but that's more because we don't eat outside of the kitchen/dining room than because I don't want him to have it alone.

[turtlegirl]

Starting around 9-10 months old on the weekends DH and I would trade off who got up at 6am with the baby. That parent usually just brought a pillow and blanket into the nursery and laid on the flow while DS1 played around in his room. I remember waking up one time around 7/730am to find DS playing happily all around me with every single toy/book in his room taken out of a box/bin in his room. He has always been really good at independent play time.

We have a very small, open floor plan style house. I regularly let DS1 and DS2 play in their rooms separate/together while I'm in the kitchen cooking, cleaning, etc. I remember doing it with DS1 before DS2 was born, so he was probably around 1.5 years old.

I also let them both play in the backyard alone when I'm cooking/cleaning inside. I just have the sliders open so they can come in/out as they please and peek my head out to check on them every 10-15 mins.

[Deleted]

Mar 17, 2014 10:22:26 GMT -5 @ojo said:

My kids get their hands pinched in bifold closet doors, climb to the top of their dresser, undress themselves, and that's with me awake. It'll be a long time yet before I let them hang out in their rooms while I sleep. And no way would I let them have food unsupervised.

Ditto. DS is 2, and tries to climb his dresser, strips naked and pees on the floor, tries to pull pieces off toys and eat them. And that's when I'm AWAKE. He won't be alone in his room for a long time yet.

I do leave him in his crib for a bit in the mornings. He loves to roll around with his lovey and babble. He actually gets annoyed if I interrupt him.

[dbsk8dance]

No way would I leave my 15 month old by themselves while I slept in another room! I think we started around 3?

I have gone back to sleep on the floor or couch while they played in the same room.

[downtoearth]

Our first house was small, so we let our DS#1 play alone in a closed door room (his) around age 18 months, but we had switched him to a mattress on the floor at that time, so his room was already very kid-friendly and he could get up/out all he wanted. We could hear his every move/sound also.

Same for kids #2 and honestly, kid #3 is only 17 months, but I've had a few 15-min conference calls where he's been contained in his room while I pretend I don't have kids while working from home.

[MadamePresident]

I let my kid wander around our upstairs sometimes in the morning while I'm still laying in bed. I'm semi awake, so I can hear her, but I don't think she has to be 100% in my line of sight all the time.

[pamela]

Depends on the kid, but I could totally do it then.