Am I Being Too Overprotective?

[Annoyed]

OK, so my husband left early this morning and my 3 year old woke up as well. He decides to put the TV on and tells her to be quiet until Mommy wakes up.

Now, it may not seem like such a big deal, but she is 3 and I am sleeping. She could get into anything and I wouldn't know about it. His defense is that she is very mature for her age and she is a good kid so she won't do anything bad.

I think she would have been just as happy waiting for me in her bedroom reading books.

Do any of you let your 3 year old or younger be unsupervised? Am I being too overprotective?

[daycare]

I'm not one to really pick fights with my husband .

I would just tell my husband exactly what you said and please don't let it happen again.

I guess you could look at it this way, she could wake up while both of you are sleeping and you may not even know it. No fault to anyone.

I do think that a 3 year old is way too young to be left unattended, but I don't think that this situation would really bother me too much.

[Unregistered]

I dont find it a big deal, when my son was 3 he always watched tv downstairs without me staring at him watching tv, Even now when its the weekend and our kids are up early, we get them some milk, and put them downstairs with cartoons, and go back up and lay in bed and watch the news, when they are done watching cartoons, they come upstairs and crawl into bed with us and they are 2 and 5, I really think you can judge what your child will do while in another room, my son, he never dug into things, or tried to get into things, and my 2 yr old, only does what her big brother does, and if shes not doing something good, he makes sure wwe know about it.

[Kaddidle Care]

Oooh she could have gotten into sooo much trouble! - Hopefully she didn't.

It depends on the child but at 3.. hmmm

If I try to sleep in you can be guaranteed that my son will come in chattering away and wake me up.

[cheerfuldom]

Its always better to be safe than sorry. He should have woken you up and asked what you preferred. I schedule my own day to make sure that I am always up before the kids and after the kids. She's only 3 and with you sleeping, thats not far from her being home alone completely. Its not overprotective, its good parenting.

[sharlan]

I'm sorry, but I would never leave a 3 yo up while I was asleep. I never did it with my kids and I sure wouldn't do it with my grandkids.

[AfterSchoolMom]

I never did that with mine. There's WAY too much that they could have gotten into. I'm really glad that mine are old enough now that I don't have to worry too much.

[e.j.]

A 3 year old girl in our area was killed several years ago while her parents were sleeping. If I remember correctly, she had opened a bottom drawer on her dresser in order to stand on it so she could reach something on top of the dresser. The dresser toppled over, fell on her and killed her. Her parents found her under the dresser when they woke up.

You're not being overprotective in my view. Explain to your husband that no matter how mature a 3 year old might seem, she is still a young child who needs appropriate supervision. You can't give her that if you're still sleeping and unaware that she's up and moving about.
You're not being overprotective.

[Blackcat31]

It is hard to give a definitive answer on this one.

When my DD was 3 yrs old, I absolutely would have trusted her up alone watching TV while I slept.

If it was my DS, I wouldn't have trusted him at 6 yrs old, let alone 3 yrs old.

I do think your DH should have at least woke you up to tell you he was leaving and left the choice of staying asleep, getting up completey or moving to the couch in the living room to sleep with one eye open up to you.

Simply leaving without telling you was wrong IMPO.

[Candyland]

I'm sorry, but I would never leave a 3 yo up while I was asleep. I never did it with my kids and I sure wouldn't do it with my grandkids.

Same with me. Just sweetly tell your husband to always wake you up when daughter is awake and he's leaving if you happen to be in bed.

[youretooloud]

I think it was incredibly thoughtful of your husband to do that for you.lovethis

My own kid could watch cartoons and eat a snack while I was sleeping, BUT, I knew they were up. (big age difference, so they weren't together)

So, while I'd allow my own kids to be awake in the tv room while I slept, I'd have a talk with everybody first. I'd make sure the doors were well locked, and I'd lay the ground rules for what shows were allowed and what were not.

[Kaddidle Care]

This is what a 3 year old unattended COULD do. (I think it's a hoax but it's pretty awesome!) ::

http://shine.yahoo.com/moments-of-motherhood/video--boys-dump-flour-all-over-house-in-an-ususually-uniformly-messy-way.html

[SimpleMom]

I wouldn't have liked that either. I don't even like my kids left in thier highchairs when my hubby comes in and say goodbye to me and i'm hardly awake yet.

[AnneCordelia]

I let my current 3yo up while I am sleeping in on weekends but only because I have two older children who I know are up with him. My oldest son wakes him up (they share a room) for company in the morning. Not on his own though.

[JennyBear]

This is what a 3 year old unattended COULD do. (I think it's a hoax but it's pretty awesome!) ::
http://shine.yahoo.com/moments-of-mo...messy-way.html

LOL!!!!! If I walked into that I think I would die of a stroke!! haha I would be running for the vacuum and some sort of anxiety medication LMAO!!