<p>^^ Yep - in the 70’s my mother left us in the car more than once. Not sure how old we were. I never did it with my kids. Not even when they were teenagers. By then it was routine - if you’re going to the store with mom, you’re going IN the store.</p>
<p>Many states have laws now designed to help protect young kids from being left unattended in cars. Florida’s summer heat can kill a child left in a hot car after only a few minutes.</p>
<p><a href=“Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine”>Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine;
<p>My mom left me in the car when I was a kid once while she went into the YMCA for a few minutes (picking up a sibling from swim lesson, I think). I had been super curious about that lighter thing in the dashboard, so I pushed it in and waited for it to pop out. When it did I pulled it out and looked at it – it was so hot it was white, not red – it didn’t LOOK hot. So I stuck my finger in to touch it and see… I don’t leave my kids alone in the car for various safety reasons, and remembering that experience is one of them.</p>
<p>No. Couple of local horror stories influenced my thinking.
One local family with 12 children lost their baby to heat when they left her in the car in their own driveway. Dad and oldest sibs each assumed the other had gotten the baby. (Mom and oldest daughter were in Ireland at the time). Tragic and heartbreaking.</p>
<p>This reminds me of when my D was maybe 5 or 6. She was upset about something ( as Romani knows, aspergery kids have a hard time growing up) she ran out the front door, and by the time I made it outside she was gone.
I walked around the neighboring blocks each way and didnt see her, so I went back to the house to get the minivan to look for her.
She was in the back of the van. She must have gotten in it when she saw me go around the block, because I hadnt heard the door before.
I kept the door locked after that.</p>
<p>ek, I think you mean Ema and not me 
</p>
<p>One summer when my kids were small there was a story in the national news about a group of kids in Texas who had died from heat after hiding in the trunk of a car during a game of hide and seek. I remember very sternly warning my kids never to climb into the trunk of a car. That story really shook me up because I could envision how easily such a tragedy could occur.</p>
<p>Sorry. Romani.</p>
<p>I never left my young children in the car. Never. Pay at the pump gas stations and drive-through pharmacies were wonderful. Even if I had to wake them up to get them all out of the car for a 15-second trip inside a building, I would not leave them. It could be a pain, especially when I was exhausted and they were fussy, but they went where I went. My parents didn’t leave us alone in a car back in the good old days either.</p>
<p>VaBB–I remember that case. A similar (though happy ending) thing happened in my driveway. Our friends were visiting us–they have 7 kids and so do we. They parked their (black) van in our driveway after a long trip, and all came in, started visiting, getting snacks–then about an hour later their daughter (4-5yo?) came in the door crying, red-faced and soaked with sweat. She was asleep when they arrived and with all the commotion of 17 people in the house, no one noticed that she wasn’t there. It was summer and hot out. Fortunately she was able to get out of her seat and open the van door!
My mom used to leave us (6-7 kids) in the station wagon routinely–every time she went into the grocery store or other short errand. (Certainly no one would kidnap that many kids! And no one including my mom wanted us in the store, either!) We used to play around in the car, jumping over the seats. I remember one time my brother hit his mouth on the metal back of the seat and it started bleeding.
ONCE–the only time I EVER intentionally left a kid of any age in the car (I am really paranoid about kidnappers, molesters, etc.–someone once tried to abduct me from a mall parking lot when I was 21)-- I left my 12yo son–he refused to go in the grocery store with me because he was tired and didn’t want to walk around. It was cool outside, but not freezing. Small town. Someone saw him and called the police. The cop came up to the car window and questioned S. (Asked his age, what school he went to, name of principal–to confirm he really was in middle school). Cop left, telling my son that the person who called must’ve thought he was much younger. . . I actually saw the cop in the store right after that.
Twice I accidentally left sleeping babies in the van–forgetting they were with me because they were quiet/in the back. Once I was picking up D from dance lessons–just a couple minutes, couple steps across the parking lot–baby was screaming when I got back. It was winter/cold. I felt terrible–like the worst mom in the world–but also glad that no one else had noticed the baby before I did. Another time I went to renew my license. Person in front of me in line had a baby and I quickly remembered MY baby in the van and ran to get her–still sleeping. It was fall/cool. I have also left kids (ages 5-9ish) home alone, and at church for 20 min to 1 hour–3 incidents. Nothing bad happened but I am just sick when I hear these stories because I totally understand how this can happen when a mom is distracted, sleep deprived, trying to do too much, etc.
Although I have gone through many “mom years” of shopping or other errands with kids, I don’t mind. I taught them to behave/keep quiet in the store and not ask for anything. I control their behavior with “the look.” 
Just take your kid with you or do the errand another time or get a sitter. Kid will be grown before you know it.</p>
<p>In California, 7 is the magic age that child is allowed to be in the car alone without penalty. I still wouldn’t do it, but it’s good to know the law. Someone 6 and under is allowed if there is a person 12 or over with them. “Babysitting age.”</p>
<p>My 27-year-old son asked me this last night. He was under the impression, like the author, that not leaving the kids alone is a new thing.</p>
<p>He was surprised to hear that I never left him or his sister alone until they were out of elementary school, and neither did my peers. It was just understood that you didn’t do that. It may have been more of a worry of him getting himself in trouble instead of “stranger danger” but it still wasn’t done.</p>
<p>I had the opposite problem. I went out without my baby for the first time and I was so exhausted I thought I forgot him somewhere. I ran around the store looking for his seat somewhere. It took me a few minutes to remember he was home with dad.</p>
<p>I could actually see how you could be tired or scattered and forget you had the baby and not your spouse. Especially if the baby is in the back seat turned around and quiet and it was a break in routine. </p>
<p>I haven’t because my mom left us in the car to go into the cleaners and my brother put the car in neutral and we rolled out of the parking lot into an extremely busy street. We were both really little. It wasn’t so much scary as oh man we’re in trouble … until we rolled into the street. </p>
<p>My parents used to leave me and my brother alone in the car all the time --they’d even go out to a nearby restaurant and leave us in the car while they went in to eat. We were both school age then - I’m thinking that my parents thought that was safer than leaving us home alone without a babysitter … but I do remember I used to be irked with my parents at the time. Not frightened – that was in a location within walking distance of our home, and in those days we kids also pretty much had free rein to roam around the neighborhood. I remember terrifying my mom when I was about 5 and playing at a the home of a friend who lived about a mile away – I got angry with the friend over something or other and decided to walk home on my own. I knew the way, I got home fine – but of course mom was frantic by the time I showed up. That would have been in the late 1950’s & early 1960’s. “Leave it to Beaver” era.</p>
<p>I never left my own kids in the car but there was an incident once when my son was a baby and my now-ex husband had him, and was going to come meet me somewhere. I remember husband bounding in, without the kid – and my saying, “where’s the baby!?” --and then that look of utter horror on his face when he remembered that son was with him, left behind asleep in the car seat. Of course we both tore out towards wherever the car was parked. Son,of course, was fine. </p>
<p>Recently my own son was upset about an incident where he was put in the position of leaving a 12 year old child alone for a few minutes because of someone else’s refusal to accommodate him relating to an errand he was running. I suppose he could have brought the 12 year old with him, but it was pouring rain so I am guessing that was also dealing with a pre-teen who was reluctant to get out of the car. Obviously, 12 is above the age where this would be considered child neglect – but it sticks in my mind because my son was distraught enough to tell me the story. </p>
<p>Lergnmom - my own mom did something similar when my younger brother was about age 4 – the car ended up rolling out of the driveway and down the street with my mom running after it. I wasn’t in the car at the time – but the incident has always been very vivid in my mind and is a reason that I was never tempted to leave a kid alone in a car. </p>
<p>It’s funny that in some areas 12 is old enough to babysit but in others can’t be left alone.</p>
<p>I never did it, but I really, really wanted to on the weekly trip to the dry cleaner with my husband’s clothes and whenever the kids were sick and I needed to pick up prescriptions. The only reason I didn’t do it was I was afraid some busybody would call the police on me. </p>
<p>My two oldest were sickly little kids, and I used to have fantasies of me running in to the tiny pharmacy, telling them I was there, dropping off a credit card, running back out to my car, and then running back in to pick up the medicine and the credit card a few minutes later. I remember when a CVS about 20 minutes away from my home put in a drive up window - I began going all the way over there, although there were literally dozens of pharmacies closer to our home. Today, I still drive to a CVS about 10 minutes from our home, even though there are at least 10 pharmacies closer. However, none of those stores have the drive up window and since I still have 2 kids under 10, there’s no way I’m taking the risk of having to bring a sick kid into a store. </p>
<p>Now that I’ve got built in baby sitters in my two teens, I don’t ever have to take my kids to the dry cleaner, but I have always felt like the kids would have been safer locked in the car in their car seats. I would’ve been able to see them the whole time. Our dry cleaner leaves their doors wide open and two toddlers can run outside into the parking lot faster than I or anyone else could grab them. Fortunately one of my kids was not a runner, but the other one sure was. I used to strap him into an umbrella stroller and take him into the dry cleaners. Today, at that same dry cleaner I see other mothers leaving their kids in their car seats and I think, “Good for them for having the courage to stand up to the butinskys of the world!” </p>
<p>@halfemptypockets </p>
<p>Many people work in professions where they are mandated reporters of neglect or abuse/child endangerment. I always notice when a small child is alone on a street corner, left unattended in a store or in a car. Buttinsky is another word for snitch and I don’t mind calling to report a child that may be put in harms way due to a parents laziness.</p>
<p>Maybe if there were more “butinskys” of the world, there would be no children or pets dying in cars from people who <em>swear</em> they were just making a short trip inside. </p>