It happens every summer – someone leaves a baby in a hot car and goes shopping. The guilty parents always claim they just forgot about the child but how could you? I really don’t see how. Anyway, it’s no excuse. It’s your responsibility to remember that you have the child with you.
And you know… I suppose it’s wrong to judge people by appearances but doesn’t that woman just look like someone who would do something that stupid and irresponsible? They don’t always show the person on TV in these cases but when they do, almost always, they have that unmistakable “trailer trash” look. Of course not everyone who lives in a trailer is trash and not all trailer trash live in trailers; some live in nice homes. It’s an attitude, a lifestyle.
Oklahoma has a shockingly high rate of child abuse and neglect. What can be done? How do you get through to people who would do something like leaving an infant in a hot car on a summer day?
June 27th, 2008 - 8:05 am
I’ve had friends who have children (none of whom have ever left them in hot cars) claim that “sometimes when you have kids you’re so tired you can’t remember ANYTHING” as a way of sort of excusing the behavior. (And also of shutting me up, the old “YOU don’t have kids so what do YOU possibly know?”)
I always wondered if there was any truth to that – that you could get so sleep deprived that you’d leave a baby in a car. (There was a case in Texas where the mom was in TANNING while the baby sweltered in the car; I kind of think someone who’s tragically sleep-deprived wouldn’t be keeping a tanning appointment).
I don’t know. I’ve forgotten my purse in my car and forgotten it at home, but that’s different.
June 27th, 2008 - 12:07 pm
I’d like to ask someone who left a kid in a hot car if they left their cellphone too. I bet they never forget THAT.
I do have a kid. I’ve never forgotten him in a car, and I rarely have him with me, and I’m pretty scatterbrained anyway, so I should be more likely to forget. But I haven’t. In addition, whenever I do have my 8 year old son with me, It’s daylight. I work at night, have for several years. I don’t do daylight. I’ve got your sleep deprivation right here.