Do you let your 18mo play in a room by himself?

BerriGirl

I don't want this to come off judgy-wudgy; I honestly don't know what other parents do. DH and I were never around kids before having Jack, so we're learning as we go... but we never leave Jack alone in a room for more than a minute (and never where he could get hurt/hurt something). We're always right there with him playing or watching him play. Is that strange? Are we hovering too much?

The reason I ask is b/c of the posts re: "babyproofing your Christmas tree." Not to say that an accident couldn't happen, but I'm not worried about it b/c I don't think jack would have time to pull it down/ornaments off.

ABMcKinney

His bedroom is 100% baby proofed, so if he's in there we don't check on him too often. The rest of the house I'll only leave him alone for a few minutes.

kipper1128

DD is 14 months and will play in her room by herself - never for very long, but her room is about 10 feet away from the living room/kitchen where DH and I are.  Her attention span is so short and she wanders between the 2 areas, but I can't chase after her.  No way.  She's close enough we can hear here and will come to us if we call, so I'm not too worried about her being alone.

MrsKellyOrBust

If I can hear what he's doing, I let it go for a few minutes between checkings- especially if I am cooking dinner or tending to the baby. It's when he's quiet that he's  up to no good.

As for Christmas, all of our ornaments are soft and secured with string, not hooks, so I'm not too worried about him pulling them off- he's welcome to, that's why we got all soft ones last year.

CelticWife

We babyproofed the upstairs (living room, kitchen, dining room, bedrooms) and shut the doors to the bathroom and our bedroom, so DS is free to crawl from the living room to his bedroom without supervision. For the past two days, when he gets mad at me he crawls off to his room and shuts the door lol. (He just likes shutting doors lately.)

You would only be hovering too much if you didn't let him figure things out for himself, teach him independence.

Judah'sMommy

I'd just rather not spend my whole day saying No and trying to pull him off the tree.  It doesn't have anything to do with him being alone, he is going to be fascinated by a new addition to our living room whether I am right next to him or not.

 

secuccaro

I have a playroom set up for our Jack adjacent to our kitchen.  So yes, he goes in there and plays alone.  I can hear his toys singing or whatever, so I usually know what he is doing and I peek in every few minutes.  However, he also likes to walk around our downstairs and go into different rooms -- in that case, we usually follow him around.

I think it is ok to keep a close eye on your DS at this age.  I know that our LO gets into things a lot, and our house is well child-proofed, but he still gets into things he shouldn't.  I don't think you are hovering at all.

beachbride5

kind of. we have an incredibly open floor plan in our house, so our kitchen and family room is more like a great room. he is often playing with his puzzles or toys while i am doing things in the kitchen---not out of my eyesight, but still technically "alone" in a room, so we will need to consider babyproofing the tree.

Amrice78

he has a large baby-proofed gated off area in the living room that I do leave him in to play when I'm in another room

fIowerchild

No we don't.

Hudson never got anything off the Christmas tree that I didn't watch him take.

CagleBaby

ABMcKinney:

His bedroom is 100% baby proofed, so if he's in there we don't check on him too often. The rest of the house I'll only leave him alone for a few minutes.

Ditto this, plus the good thing is that we just moved and we are baby proofing every room as we unpack.