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A new mum's decision to leave her baby alone in a hotel room is dividing the internet.

A new mum has left the internet divided after admitting to leaving her 11-month-old daughter alone in a hotel room so she and her partner could enjoy a meal out together.

“My husband and I put our daughter carefully in her deep-sided travel cot, flipped the switch on the video monitor and tiptoed out of our hotel room to dinner,” Frequent Crier wrote in a post for The Telegraph earlier this month.

“We ate, we drank and we were back in the room, brushing our teeth and undressing with the stealth of ninjas, by 10pm,” she continued, adding, “It was only the next day that I realised I may have made a serious error of judgment. Casually describing the previous night to our friends, I was met with concerned looks.”

On one side of the argument were parents who say leaving babies unsupervised could lead to fits of crying, visits from unvetted hotel staff and at its worst, a Madeleine McCann-type event.

Would you leave your baby in a hotel room? Source: iStock.
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On the other hand, were parents who said they would be willing to leave their children alone in the room, so long as they could get back to their room in a reasonable amount of time and if their baby monitor coverage would stretch to the hotel restaurant.

According to Frequent Crier, she and her husband's baby monitoring schedule throughout their dinner date was vigorous.

Listen: Monique Bowley and Rebecca Judd deep dive on the first three days with a new baby. Post continues after audio. 

"We ended up going back to our room to check on our daughter - who is a very sound sleeper - every 20 minutes, while staff assured us that they would let us know if they heard a cry in passing," she said.

Feeling conflicted about the backlash she and her husband received for their decision, she reasoned, "All I'm talking about here is letting my baby sleep peacefully in a room without me, as she does every night."

What do you think about Frequent Crier's decision? Would you leave your baby alone in a hotel room? 

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