I had a crazy experience over the weekend. A friend of mine and I were staying at a nice hotel for a relaxing girls weekend. Our room was facing the lake and very upscale- not someplace we would normally stay 🙂
The people next door to us had two kids. One looked to be about 2 or 3 and the other was a baby. We came back from dinner our first night there hoping to jump in the hot tub, which was on the other end of the hotel. Unfortunately there was a couple in there already so we decided to wait about 15 minutes and then try again. As we were getting ready to leave the room and head back down, we saw the couple from the hot tub walking back to their room, which was right next door. We realized they had left their two kids sleeping in the room with the door unlocked while they went to take a soak.
Both my friend and I were totally shocked. I immediately flashed back to the little girl in Portugal whose parents left her in the room while they went to dinner. She still hasn't been found. It left a really sick feeling in my stomach, but I also felt bad about being judmental. Maybe it wasn't as big of a deal as we thought. We are older parents so maybe young people feel more comfortable now or maybe they had a baby monitor with them.
Either way it got me thinking about my Ella and whether or not I would ever leave her alone. I don't even leave her in the car when running into a store or gas station. In the store I don't let her out of my sight for even a minute. So now I'm wondering if I'm too over-protective and being a "helicoptor" parent. I certainly don't want her to grow up scared to be without me but I could not imagine leaving her alone if there is even the slightest possibility she could be harmed or taken.
So as I over-thought the situation and started searching for opinions online, I came across this list of what age is considered appropriate to leave your kids alone. If you're like me and have wondered when, if ever, you should leave your kids unattended I hope this helps make the decision a littler easier 🙂
