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Would you leave your baby alone in a hotel room?

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Well, this is a new parenting thing to argue about. As if there aren't enough divisive topics like how you birth, how you feed your baby, how you discipline your child, etc. The list is endless and it seems like more things are added every day.

A couple of weeks ago, The Telegraph published an article about parents who left their baby to sleep in their hotel room and took the baby monitor with them to the restaurant downstairs.

Usually I'm all about letting people parent the way they want to. If you're not putting your child in harm purposefully, who am I to judge? But when I read this I just felt my anxiety levels rising.

I don't think I could do this. Even if you do this at home, where you leave your child to sleep safely in another room, your home is much more secure than a hotel where there are other people who have access to your room. 

After the article was posted on an online parenting forum, pearls were clutched and words like 'irresponsible' and 'neglectful' were being thrown around by most mothers who would never do this. Others suggested that with the advances in technology, it was easier to keep an eye and ear on your little one from a distance. 

In the article the author says, "I'm sorry, but if you think that, you are letting a fear of the unknown - or at least the highly unlikely - run your lives" and while I agree that in this day an age we are parenting in a much more fearful way, I just can't shake the thought of Madeleine McCann's disappearance in 2007

Am I being unnecessarily paranoid? Probably. Can I live with it? Absolutely. Because room service is a thing that exists.  

What would drive you to leave or not leave your child to sleep in a hotel room on his or her own? Send your thoughts to chatback@parent24.com and we may publish them. Should you wish to remain anonymous, please let us know.

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