All parents have been there, so picture this: Your baby is fast asleep in her crib, and you realize that you need something from the store that will take you out of the house for about 7 minutes. Do you go?
A British mom recently posted this question on a British parenting site called mumsnet and got quite an array of responses (almost 900 of them, to be exact).
Some commenters were completely against the idea of leaving a sleeping baby home alone. What if she woke up and screamed for the entire time with no one to comfort her? What if something terrible happened to mom while out on the errand? No one would know to go to her home to care for the baby.
Others had different thoughts: Is going for a 7-minute errand any different from taking a shower, or doing yard work? In both cases, you can’t hear the child and you’re probably gone for an even longer amount of time.
One cautious parent wrote: “Even though it’s super tempting, I quite often want to shift [move] 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!!”
On which side of this debate do you fall? Let us know in the comments!
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