A concerned mum says she’s worried her friend is being ‘ridiculously negligent’ after she admitted she regularly leaves her four-year-old home alone at night.

The women, who is also mum to a four-year-old, says the admission was made after the couple were casually chatting.

“We are both single parents,” she explained on Mumsnet.

“She’s not a close friend but we see each other regularly at a group both our sons go to. Our sons are two weeks apart, both were four in November.

“I was saying today how hard it is in the evenings when you’re a lone parent, mainly because if you fancy a bar of chocolate and your child is asleep you can’t just nip out (not a big issue, just never have chocolate when I need it!). She said, ‘Just leave him at home, that’s what I do. I can see the shop from my bedroom window and I’m always back within 15 mins’.”

Her friend’s confession didn’t sit well with the mum, who says she can think of a multitude of things that could go wrong.

“My son has fallen out of bed in the past, or had a nightmare, and I wouldn’t put it past him to wake up, call for me, and to go wandering round the house if I didn’t respond.”

It’s left her questioning if this is something other parents are doing.

“Is this actually something people do and just keep quiet, or am I in the majority here thinking that this is so ridiculously negligent?”

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