<p>An account of legal hell endured by a parent who left kid in locked car w an iPad on a 50 degree day to attend to a 5 min errand.
<a href=“http://www.salon.com/2014/06/03/the_day_i_left_my_son_in_the_car/”>http://www.salon.com/2014/06/03/the_day_i_left_my_son_in_the_car/</a></p>
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<p>I never left my kids. Ever. Until they were much, much older. Preteen/teen. A four year old could easily be encouraged to unlock a door for a stranger OR get scared and wander out of the car to find mommy…I shudder to think what could happen. I think doing it once and getting away with it makes it easier to do it the next time. Like when one runs a traffic light and doesn’t cause an accident/you don’t get pulled over. It makes it easier to take that risk again.</p>
<p>My memory tells me that I’ve never done that. I think its possible that on an occasion or two I might have done it when the nature of the errand was such that the kid and the car were never out of my sight (while I picked up the dry cleaning, for example).</p>
<p>In any case, I’m not a big fan of kids being left alone, or even being allowed to run ahead or dawdle around near their parents in stores, or especially on the street. Al Gore, among others, came close to learning this lesson the hard way. And we don’t have enough time to list the kids who’ve drowned while their parents were otherwise occupied. </p>
<p>As a distracted new mom, I left S in the car seat while filling gas and realized I had left the keys locked in the vehicle, The service station broke two locks trying to open the door before I called H from his workplace to come and rescue us with his spare key. </p>
<p>I have not and would not EVER intentionally leave any live person or animal in a locked vehicle. It gets WAY too hot in HI and there are car thefts–sometimes with the thief unwittingly taking the kids along as well. I know it’s easier not to get the kids out of the car, but it’s the right and responsible thing to do. I do think leaving kids (or animals in a locked car is endangerment and should be sanctioned–VERY wrong. Back when I was a young mom, I never read about this happening but it seems to be happening more and more these days. </p>
<p>Read of an awful case where a child was found dead in the car seat because the parent forgot the kid was in the car seat in the back and didn’t drop kid off at daycare. That was an extreme case, but so tragic. </p>
<p>Once, I left the elementary school without D by accident because I assumed she was in the car with S but wondered why she was so quiet. S finally admitted she wasn’t in the car and we came back in minutes to retrieve her as well.</p>
<p>Or the kids who went for ice cream in NYC last week. The were stabbed while in their buildings elevator. The 6 yo died. The 7 yo is clinging to life. </p>
<p>Let’s not forget Maddy McCain, the little girl who was left alone 7 years ago while on holiday in Portugal. Her parents were steps away…she has never been seen again.</p>
<p>I once locked my baby in the car by accident when I was picking up my other kid from the babysitter. Luckily a locksmith lived upstairs from her. It was actually scary how quickly he was able to open up my car!</p>
<p>Yes, I agree @mathmom </p>
<p>Those lock openers can be made easily. An old neighbor made one when he locked himself out of his car and always had it handy for those of us who locked our keys in the car. Incredibly scary. </p>
<p>I locked my toddler in our van by accident outside her preschool.
( I was exhausted during those years, im only surprised it didnt happen more often)
However, locksmiths open cars in that situation for free.
( she was asleep)</p>
<p>I’ve heard the horror story from my mom of when she ran into a gas station to pay for gas and I managed to crawl out of my car seat and lock the door (she had left the keys inside). It was a scorching hot day and they ended up having to call a repair shop to come open the door. I was obviously OK but I doubt very much I was left after that. </p>
<p>I also know that I was a terrible, terrible toddler. I was the brat who would scream between every bite and never stayed in her car seat. As a consequence, I didn’t go out with my parents very often. In this scenario, my mom would’ve left me with grandma. </p>
<p>I don’t think this story is representative of our overly cautious society (which I do believe we are and I think it’s detrimental) but more representative of our collective inability to say “no” to children (clearly, there are exceptions). Mom gave into a four year old more than once in this story. </p>
<p>@emeraldkity4 </p>
<p>LOL this brings to mind when DD was 14 months or so!! We had just dropped big brother off at school. Just as I was pulling into the driveway, the cell phone rang and I needed to take the call. She began to get fussy so I handed her my car keys(yuck, but the only thing I had handy to keep her happy during the call). The call lasted roughly 3 minutes. I hopped out of the car, hit the lock button on the door without thinking. As I rounded the front of the car to grab her from her car seat, I saw her playing with the keys!!! L-) </p>
<p>I panicked, I can’t remember who I called to open the door but just say my ex husband wasn’t too happy!! This kind of thing probably happens more often than not.</p>
<p>No, I’ve never left a child in a car, or a pet, for that matter. Years ago, I had a cell phone stolen from our upscale shopping center parking lot ( window was left open a crack) and a purse stolen from my car when I only went to the door of a friend for a few minutes. The idea of leaving a child in the car would never feel safe to me, no matter where I was. I know that bad things can happen anywhere, even when you’re right with them, but cars and children have never felt like a good combo.
What’s really paranoid and somewhat comical is that I still feel weird leaving my very competent 29 year old “child” in the car to run in a store to do an errand, lol. Some things are so ingrained that you can’t shake them even when you should.</p>
<p>I will add that I wouldn’t have called the police in this situation. If I were truly concerned about his safety, I would have stayed around until the mom appeared. If no one returned in 10 or 15 minutes, I might start looking for the parent, depending. If I were running late and didn’t have time to hang around, I’d figure that it would all work out and leave well enough alone. I’m old enough to realize that not everyone has the same parenting style that I have or the same concerns, and if it wasn’t important enough of an emergency for me to stick around, then it’s not important enough for the police to get involved. </p>
<p>@moonchild </p>
<p>I’m the same. I will often times run into the local grocery store which has heavy traffic and DD always wants to sit in the car and listen to the radio. I always make sure she locks the doors!! She will be 19 soon. </p>
<p>I just thought of a case where a woman went to Walmart with her brothers, she decided to stay behind while they went in to grab a few items for a picnic. She got out to change her young baby on the seat, while she changed the baby, she was shoved into the car and the car was jacked. They took her to some location, was killed and body dumped in a field. The baby was left there in the field with ether body. The baby was found alive, but had horrible sunburn & was near death with dehydration. </p>
<p>It was in a so called “nice” area. I don’t believe in nice areas. There are predators everywhere.</p>
<p>Back in the day, one had to run inside the gas station to pay for gas. I must admit that I left DD and DS in the car to run in and pay. I would lock the car door and take the keys, and never did it when it was hot in the summer. DD would have been at least 4 and I would have been able to see the car from the window of the gas station. Definitely not optimal, but unloading two kids from car seats in the pouring rain is also not optimal. A thief would not have been able to break into the car and drive away in the amount of time it took me to pay.</p>
<p>No, not ever. But if you met my toddlers, you would not have taken your eye off them for a moment, either ;)</p>
<p>Moonchild, I hope you would never leave a car with a child in it without calling police and sticking around until they show up! Many a child has died being left in a hot car…</p>
<p>if a baby is locked in a car…use a hammer and break car window immediately…don’t wait for a locksmith or a spouse to drive with key from other side of town.</p>
<p>My eldest was 4 years old 26 years ago, and I would never in a million years have left him alone in a car for a minute at that age. So I don’t know when the author thinks the “cultural shift” occurred. In fact, several years before I had kids, I pulled my car into the lot of a large discount store one afternoon only to notice that there were two very young kids–maybe 1 and 4–alone in the car next to me. In retrospect I wish I had called the police, but instead I waited by the car to keep an eye on those kids–actually mostly concerned that the bigger one might harm the littler one–for a good ten minutes until the mother returned. I gave her a piece of my mind, but I doubt it made an impression. But even 30+ years ago, and childless, I knew this was dangerous. </p>
<p>I find it offensive that the author, rather than just accepting that she acted neglectfully and had to answer for it, felt she had to write a defensive screed. As for her son’s reaction, well there was absolutely no reason he ever had to learn about this incident, and if she had just humbly taken her medicine instead of discussing the tale with everyone she knew, he wouldn’t have. But apparently she was, and still is, too concerned about having her bona fides as a good mother blessed by the universe.</p>
<p>^^^I do think it’s different when the kids are in view the whole time. I mean, we let them run around in the park without standing over them, which probably is no safer.</p>
<p>And while I can say I’ve haven’t made this particular parenting goof, I’ve made plenty of others!
Some just aren’t “on the books” yet!</p>
<p>I don’t think you should leave a kid in a car, but I’m bemused by the woman in the article having to do 100 hours of community service when many thousands of children in this country are subjected to much more horrendous parenting with no punishment for their parents.</p>
<p>Remember the case earlier this year where the homeless, unemployed mom left her kids in the car to go on a job interview? She had no daycare & no family to watch the kids during her appt. She was arrested. What would you do in that case?</p>