Kids Left in Cars: Should We Blame the Parents?
A recent post I made about kids left in cars prompted a discussion on Daddy Types over how much busy parents were to blame for the death of their young ones. There’s a huge push among parents to cut our fellow parents some slack on this, and to blame society or car manufacturers instead of mom and pop. But John of flagrantdisregard disagrees. He’s been tracking these stories for a while, and he’s worried about giving some parents (and we KNOW such black-hearte people exist) using this “accidental” form of death as a convenient way to get rid of their charges. Even in cases of true neglect, John argues, shifting the locus of the burden away from parents just compound the tragedy. “Parents who are already not paying enough attention to the well-being of their children would be even less attentive in a world where cars become babysitters. People like that are dangerous to their children.”
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POSTED IN: Death
4 opinions for Kids Left in Cars: Should We Blame the Parents?
momma2mingbu
Aug 31, 2005 at 12:03 pm
These people have no excuse, as far as I’m concerned. It’s a CHILD that they left in the car! NOT their wallet for God’s sakes!
My ex-SIL left my nephew in the car last spring when he was about 8 months old. THANK GOD my brother called her. She was supposed to have taken my nephew to him while she was at work. THANK GOD he was able to get ahold of her at work and ask where his baby was at and why she hadn’t dropped him off yet! If my brother hadn’t have called her, who knows if my nephew would still be alive. Believe it or not, my ex-SIL acted like it was NOT A BIG DEAL that she left her son in the car for 30 minutes by himself!
ann adams
Aug 31, 2005 at 12:06 pm
No punishment handed down from the criminal justice system can compare to the lifelong self-inflicted punishment for one’s own actions. I don’t think, however, we can just let it slide. I honestly don’t know what’s consistent with justice.
My sister-in-law drove home from her first trip back to church after her first child was born and had to double back to rescue her son from the nursery. She never forgot the experience and neither have I. Of course she didn’t go to jail. Should she have? The only real difference between her experience and tragedy was the location - a church rather than a car.
Society puts many pressures on parents - I don’t know how the car manufacturers fit in. People, however, are ultimately responsible for their own actions and to blame anone other themselves is ridiculous.
Angel
Aug 31, 2005 at 6:42 pm
How many people would forget they had a million dollars in cash sitting in their car? So WTF would they forget someone far more precious??
And I have to say, it’s crossed my minds a few times whether these things were truly an “accident”.
ann adams
Aug 31, 2005 at 10:06 pm
I’ve thought of it too Angel. I guess I just hate to admit, even to myself, that people can be that depraved even though are examples every day, each worse than the last seems like. Take a look at the NY Daily News sometime if you want to really ruin your day.