Children Left in Locked Cars, A National Problem

[beetlehorn]

Each year I hear heartbreaking stories about someone leaving a child, or children unattended in a locked car when temperatures soar into the 90's. Only to come back out and find the youngster/s dead of heat stroke. Many claim to have "forgotten" the child was there. My question is how do you forget your child? What could be so important that you would put a child's life in such danger? The national average for the US is approximately 40 children per year. Just try to imagine what those kids went through before they went unconscious! In my opinion it is a national problem, so there needs to be a nationwide campaign against unattended children in hot cars.

[exoticimports]

Well, if I break routine in the morning sometimes I forget to shave.

On the other hand, if I stick with routine, I do exactly that routine and nothing else. Is it possible to be in such a routine that one forgets that today they had to drop off the kid?

I agree that it is terribly heartbreaking. So is child abuse. But until we start parenting better- for which there is no test, no scrutiny- then it won't change. We don't need more government spending and oversight about such a specific, and actually rare, problem.

I will say this: children left in cars, left at home, taken in the car to buy drugs, etc is ignored by the legal system until it's too late. Parents who leave kids in cars weren't great parents yesterday who made a mistake today- they are pisspoor parents and the death in the car was but one event, albeit the one that finally got something done (too late). Speaking from experience- I am a single father, my daughter's mother has left her alone, failed to meet her at the school bus stop, and driven drunk with her in the car repeatedly. I voiced this again and again during the custody battle, yet nobody gives a damn. My ex still gets unsupervised visitation, and that won't change until something catastrophic happens, and by then it's too late. Blame the legal system and lawyers.

[cyware]

There WAS a campaign, which is still running I think :

[warning: it will heavily affect the viewers if parents]

[beetlehorn]

Although this is a re-enactment, it illustrates how this typical scenario re-occurs several times every summer. It still leaves me with several questions, such as, how the hell can you be so "Brain Dead" as to forget your child!!!...routine or no routine!!!The mother in this case seems to not even be aware her little boy was left behind, and the first lady that spotted the child alone should have never left the scene without doing something positive. What a stupid B****! Although I agree this is relatively rare as compared to all the other bad things that happen to kids, try telling that to one of them that has been abandoned, and left to suffer so horribly until they die! I agree also that there are just some "piss poor" parents out there. A few years ago a little girl (18 months old) was left in a car in 98 degree heat, while her slut mom was in a bar for seven hours drinking, smoking, and whoring around. She was discovered too late, and now the mother has been convicted of child abandonment, child endangerment, and will undergo a trial for murder. I hope she never gets out. This is inexcusable in my opinion!

[beetlehorn]

After reviewing, and rethinking my last post, please let me apologize for some of the strong words I used. I certainly don't intend to offend anyone. This is a tough issue, at least for me since I raised two kids, and now have several grandchildren. As for the case with exoticimports' child, all I can say is I have sympathy for you, and hope you gain full custody. If I were the judge there, I would have taken any of the mother's privileges away the first time I heard about her driving drunk with the child in the car. That is another one of those inexcusable actions I simply cannot tolerate. Yes you are right, there need to be much stiffer laws for any kind of child endangerment. Tom