Reply to Okay to leave sleeping kid to go to neighbors house?

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Reply to "Okay to leave sleeping kid to go to neighbors house?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If there was a fire you wouldn't know until it reached the bedroom, by then it could be too late. [/quote]

And in response to the OP's earnest and honest question, what could happen?

If you don't have a carbon monoxide monitor, they could be dead when you get home.

If you have a sudden electrical fire and no working smoke detectors (or even smoke detectors you think are working), they could be dead when you get home.  (This happened to a house in which I was babysitting and no alarms went off and the house was big enough that I didn't smell the initial smoke:  fortunately, I checked and got out the three children.  The baby monitor didn't catch the sound of the flames.  I am sure those children's parents continue to think, as I do all these years later, what if I had been upstairs with the kids and had been unable to get out?)

If your child wakes up and slips down the stairs or hits her head, she could be dead when you get home.

If your child dies of Sudden Unexplained Death of a Child syndrome, she could be dead when you get home.

Yes, all of these things could also happen while you are *in* the house, but with the exception of the last point, theoretically, you might have time to respond on site; you wouldn't from across the street.  And if the unthinkable (the last 'if') happened -- as it did with friends of mine who left their sleeping child with incredibly wonderful family members, only to get a call that he had died, inexplicably, in his crib, you would spend the rest of your life, as they do, wondering if it would have made a difference if they'd been there.  Of course it wouldn't have made a difference -- they know that intellectually -- but what one knows in the head differs from what one questions in the heart.

I hope it works out, OP, but I would far rather manage this a little differently

I know I'll get flamed for being 'so dramatic.'  But I've been very close to two situations in which people continue to wonder "what if".  In one case, it's with a huge sigh of relief; in the other, it's with pain for which there is absolutely no remedy, even the best kind of faith and reasoning.[/quote]

I mean at least you know you're incredibly dramatic. [/quote]

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