I’m not sure if this is a silly question, but for context, I have one of those communal mailboxes that is three houses down from mine. It’s probably a 15-20 second walk. The other day, I was home alone with my baby, and a package of mine got delivered. I was excited about it and almost went out the door to get it on impulse. My baby was in the middle of a deep nap, so I thought it’d be fine to run out the door for 90 seconds at most to grab it. I ended up not doing it, though. Call it first-time mom anxiety, but I felt weird about leaving my 7-week-old inside our home alone. If I did go get it, I probably would’ve even locked up our front door too, just out of extra caution—even though I can see my house the whole walk to the mailbox.
I don’t know—what are your thoughts? What would you have done? Like I said, this feels like a silly question and maybe overkill, lol. If my baby was awake, I don’t think I’d ever go get the mail, but if he was sleeping…maybe? I’m probably overthinking this.
I’m not really asking this question to see what I should do for next time, but more so curious if, in general, it would be a bad move to leave such a young baby home alone for 2 minutes max. This is kind of a non-problem, as I likely just won’t ever get the mail when home alone with my baby and will let my husband grab it after work, but it just had me thinking in general.
I adore the common sense and humanistic responses and feel on this one . Of course, make sure you have the keys to your home and that your infant is safe and secure. But, no, you would not make a poor parent.
In the worst-case situation, if something happens to you, having a baby monitor with you ensures that someone notices and checks, and the baby is not left alone.
If the monitor is too far away and you suffer from anxiety, you can use FaceTime or Zoom to watch it on your phone. I used to do that whenever I needed to go to the mailboxes.
This summer, I would go out in my yard every day and conduct yard maintenance, flower watering, landscaping, and so on during the first nap! My monitor arrived, and it was my chance to grab some air and peace in my garden.
I used to call myself from my laptop to my phone and use it as a makeshift monitor when I left the house to check the mail with my first child. To be honest, that was a decent hack.
I had to mute myself on my phone because I didn’t want to wake her up, but otherwise 10/10 strongly suggest. Plus, you already have the phone in your hand in case you need to make an emergency call.
. Of course, make sure you have the keys to your home and that your infant is safe and secure. But, no, you would not make a poor parent.