What's your opinion on this?

TeagansMom609 wrote: I was reading an article on KellyMom.com lastnight. It said if you are tired and your toddler doesn't want to take a nap to put them in a safe room with a gate and go take a nap. I don't know how I feel about that. I thought about doing it once but chickened out because im still afraid she will find something and choke on it. Like tear out a peice of paper of a book, chew on it and choke. You never know..
What do you think? Have you done it? Would you?

Bee_Kay replied: Personally, I wouldn't do it.
When sleeping, you never know what sounds will go undetected.

But, that is just my opinion.

MomToMany replied: I wouldn't do it either. But I'm used to being sleep deprived, so it doesn't bother me.

coasterqueen replied: Kelly states that on her site for those mothers who are just at their end of their string and it's a matter of a) hurting self or baby or get away and do what you need to do.

At least that's what I remember her saying when her, I and a few others talked about on a chat session one night . It's been awhile.

First off, I think she is also saying put them in a baby-proofed room. She's assuming we all have baby proof rooms and should have.

I've never done that, but I have secured all the baby gates, made sure the room we are in (living room) is baby-proof and napped right on the floor in the same room as Megan. Sometimes you have NO choice, especially if they've given you an hour of sleep for 2 weeks on end and you just can't take it anymore. I've been there too many times . I'm comfortable doing this as long as the room we are in is proofed. Now that Megan is cruisin' it's a bit harder to proof the room, but we've done it.

Kaitlin'smom replied: depending on the age, and how exausted I was. Now when she was little and I coudl put her in a paypin I would in the same room with me, with a few safe toys, put baby enstien on and dose off. Now that she is older nope I could not do it. I woudl have to have someone watch her, she can be to clever and quite.

lesliesmom replied: Like Karen, when DD was little, I would put up gates or block the entrance/exit of a room off and doze off in the same room with her. Most the time it was for a few short minutes but it was enough to recharge me for a while. It is much easier when they are little. And, sometimes you just do what you have to do.

kimberley replied: i have done this when the boys were small. i really was exhausted beyond comprehension. James NEVER slept thru the night.. still rarely does because of his eczema. it wasn't on purpose but i would lay in bed to put Jacob to sleep or nurse James and end up falling asleep for a short time myself. i'd awake to one or the other quietly playing beside me. i am thankful they were fine.

coasterqueen replied: I honestly don't have any problem doing it with Kylie at age 3, if the room is proofed (for her age), the gates are locked and she has a movie on or toys for her to play with. Not sure I'd do it with both girls in the room at the same time though. Kylie would probably try to bodyslam Megan like she does now.

I'm a light sleeper anyways so one false move and I'm awake.

fashionmumofboys replied: Me personally I could not do it, as I am a pretty heavy sleeper and would not risk a chance of something terribly bad happening to the boys. Who knows what mischief they would get into.

luvmykids replied: I'm an unbelievably heavy sleeper, so I've found out from experience I can't really take naps, I conk out way to deep for them to be awake, nothing would wake me up. But if I had only one, and the room was safe, I think I'd try it.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: It takes me forever to fall asleep at night - there' s no way I could fall asleep for a nap.

What I've done when really really tired - set up the kids in one of their rooms with a movie in their dvd player... with a sippy cup of juice, and curled up on my boppy next to the door.

THere's nothing but their dresser, their armoire, their bed and their tv/vcr/dvd player (which is out of reach on tall armoires bolted to the wall) all their toys are in a playroom.

So yes, I've done it. What also helps is spending "special time" in bed with the kids... I make it a treat to be able to come into mommy's bed and snuggle to watch tv... so I got Naomie sleeping ON me, zach on one side, and Emilie on the other side... they watch a movie, I sleep with Naomie.

Fortunately, when the kids are home dh is home usually also, since he's the one who picks them up and drops them off from daycare, and I don't drive... but I have, on rare occasion, gotten dh to take the kids outta the house so I could catch an hour or two power nap. (when I was pregnant... I could sleep ALL DAY... and sometimes, I really needed to sleep... so he'd take the older 2 to walmart and walk around for an hour or so for me to rest... cuz I was nasty otherwise. )

My2Beauties replied: I wouldn't do it at Teagan's age but that is only because by personal experience Hanna gets into every little thing. I mean everything. If I think the room is baby-proof, she finds something in there It would scare me and I don't thikn I could even fall asleep for fear of being worried about her getting into something.

amynicole21 replied: I nap when Nora's napping and Sophia plays by herself or watches a movie. I'm a light sleeper and wake up with most noises, so it's never been a problem. I wouldn't leave Nora by herself though - she's too quiet and sneaky

C&K*s Mommie replied: I could not do that either. But I have slept in a few times unknowingly while the girls were up in the another room watching their dvd's.
I am trusting that they would not get into anything, even if I were exhausted. I may catch a few in a chair, but only for a 5-10 minutes at best.

PrairieMom replied: I wouldn't do it either. I have however, put in a movie, stuck my finger through the boy's belt loop so I would feel him go some where and take a quick cat nap that way.

moped replied: Not for a nap but maybe to do something quick for a few minutes

~~*Missi*~~ replied: I couldn't do it. I still wake up 2-3 times a night to make sure I hear her breathing on the monitor.
I wake up like every 20minutes if she sleeps with us on a bad day.
I am to nervous. LOL


If that was the case why not put them in the pack and play in the room with you and give them "safe" toys and lay down but a whole other room ummmm me to paranoid

A&A'smommy replied: Welll I'm not really sure.. I'm guessing if you are at your wits and you can't do it anymore then that would be a good idea as long as you don't sleep for more then 30 min. to an hour... I use to.. and still do sometimes sleep with her in the same room it helps be in a better mood and handle things better!!

Edward's Mommy replied: I wouldn't do this unless I put Edward in the crib to play. But right now I couldn't because he's going through his speration anxiety phase and the only way I would be able to take a nap is if I took one when Edward did.

xKirstyMaex replied: No, I would definately not do this, sounds very dangerous to me as I am a very heavy sleeper! I just nap when Kailyn naps if I need to.

BAC'sMom replied: I wouldn't do it either, it only takes a second for something to happen. Even when I'm fully awake my 3 always find something to get into or do. So I certainly would not trust them with my eyes closed.

Maddie&EthansMom replied:
Exact same here!

Even when I was pg and completely exhausted I would tell Maddie to sit and watch a movie (in the same room as me) while I rested my eyes. She was always so good...she would even come over and love on me every now and then. Now that she is older I don't mind taking a nap with her awake. Once or twice I have dozed off on the couch while watching Oprah or something while she and Ethan were playing right beside me, but I only slept for about 30 mins. That's really all you need sometimes to be refreshed. And, she's like a little mother hen to Ethan so I know she would watch out for him or wake me up if she needed to.

My3LilMonkeys replied: With Madison I definately would not unless she was in her crib/playpen. She gets into too much!

With Brooke I could if I was in the same room - but she wouldn't let me sleep. She thinks if she's awake, everyone should be.

Luckily my kids are good sleepers - I have never actually had this problem.

PhiMuMommy replied: honestly i have napped but always inthe room with my toddler. if i was aheavy sleerp i dont' think ii would do it.. but i'm not..

MyLuvBugs replied: Well, I can't sleep with her SCREAMING bloody murder in the room next door. But I have just put her in her crib for awhile and went to take a few moments by myself. It doesn't her them to just cry, and when she was little there were days when it was either her or me. KWIM? So, before hurting the child I'd put her in her crib and just go do dishes or sit on the couch and cry for a bit, then I was fine and I could be a good mommy again.

However, if it's the middle of the night and she wakes up crying we do try to just let her cry it out for little bit and most of the time she just cries herself back to sleep. But I don't know if I'd just put her in her room on the floor and let her be. There are soo many things that she could get into.

dizzytizzy replied: Hi I'm new here but I was reading this discussion and just wanted to say that one day I was so tired I fell asleep on the sofa not meaning too and the kids carried on playing around me. When I woke up 15 mins later they had got into the change bag and I had nappies and wipes all over the place but the kids were fine. Sometimes you are so tired that you can just drop off and that day it would of been safer for me to put the kids in a safer room and to had a little nap then just dropping off like that. When I awoke I was quite scared untill I had counted 2 children alive and well although the room looked like a bomb had gone off.

Bee_Kay replied: After giving this post some more thought.
I change my mind.
It would depend on alot of factors.....
age, what room, what could he/she get into, how tired I was, ect.

My baby is 13 now, so it's been awhile since I've had a little one