If you are a parent, read this Washington Post article. Read the whole thing, and listen to the audio presentation above (hear it here if the feature above doesn’t load). The article and audio presentation are about parents who accidentally leave their children in their carseats. It’s really, really sad.
My own view is that these parents don’t deserve additional condemnation from the courts; they’re already beating themselves up over it enough. As someone says in the article, it’s not as if hard punishment will prevent further occurrences on this phenomena. I can understand how this can happen; I’ve been distracted myself at times during that drive to daycare. It can happen to anyone.
I urge everyone who drives a child to daycare to take precautions. In the audio presentation, they recommend putting a teddy bear on the passenger seat when it’s your turn with the kid. Another suggestion that my wife makes: If you usually carry an attache case into work, put it in the back seat with your baby. This way, you’ll always have to open the back, whether you have your baby or not. It’s probably another thirty seconds of wasted time, but it’s worth it if it saves the life of your baby.
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I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Ack. I am torn. Like the prosecutor in the article, I know that it would never happen to me. No matter what.
That said, I do understand that people’s brains are wired differently and I tend to juggle multiple thought threads at the same time, i.e. even if I am distracted about one thing, I don’t let that stop me from being aware of several other things. I don’t know if that makes sense or not.
It is tragic. And I wouldn’t say that these things happen intentionally. However, I do think that, in some of these cases, parents should be held responsible because they are responsble for their little ones and failed them. I know it sounds harsh – and perhaps since I’ve been the sole responsible parent even while I was married, I had to be extra vigilant – but I can’t imagine a single waking moment (even in my dreams!) when LN was not in my thoughts.
But, judging other parents isn’t exactly proactive, is it? So. Long comment short, thanks for alerting others about this!
You’ve probably got a good multitasking mind, MN. I have friends who have that, but unfortunately, I don’t.
I know that I tend to forget what I’m doing when I try to do too much at once. I am, however, confident that I can avoid this kind of tragedy if I take precautions–i.e. attache case in the back seat. So hopefully people like me can learn from this article! 