Why do People forget their babies in cars?

[SS MAYFLOAT]

This years has been a hot one. It seems like once a week you hear about a child being left in a car to die. Parents can't imagine how something like this can happen. Well it does and I know why. For years, parents were able to have their child in the front seat. There the child is in view even if it falls asleep. When the child is in the back seat, falls asleep, parent has something on his mind, doesn't see the child in his rear view mirror (since most safty seats sit below the top of the back seat)or hears the child becasue its asleep, it would be easy to forget that they are in there. Especially if the parent is not use to taking care of the childs daily needs. It just seems odd that before we were allowed to put our children in the front seat, you never heard about someone forgetting about their child. Now it is a regular occurance. So again what one group of people thought would be safer still turns out to be unsafe. It is Dam if you do and Dam if you don't. My friends at the shop that have small kids are having their passenger side airbag unhooked and is going to put the safety seat in the front. They said it is easier paying a fine than killing your child accidently and then getting tried for murder. But then again as a parent you must have full control on your children, and make them your number one priority. As far as I'm concerned, if it was truely an accident, don't arrest the parent. Them loosing a child is more punishment than life in prison. Then if they have more children, the parent is needed more for them than we need the parent in prison.

 

[sloopy]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

thats, sad there so inacent and they die, I saw someone put a baby seet on the top of there car, so they can load grocarys, then they drive away forgetting, that there is a baby there, everyone including me just started yelling and screeming and cussing so they could stop. luckaly there was a red light coming up!<br /><br />Some people are idiots!

 

[marty_scher]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

SS<br /><br />Regardless of whether the vehicle has an airbag or not, the main reason to keep small children in the back, is that it is safer in an frontal accident.<br /><br />IMO, there is really no excuse for leaving your kids in a car. If someone can't remember where their kids are, maybe they shouldn't have them.<br /><br />Concering the good old days, some friends recently visited Iceland. Weather permitting, the mothers (maybe fathers too), simply park their strollers (baby and all) in front of the market, go in and do their thing. No worries for the locals, but it totally gave our friends the creeps <br /><br />A radically different world we live in.<br /><br />Regards.

 

[DJ]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

I'm with Marty on this one. <br /><br />How in the world can anyone be so self involved that they don't know if the child is in the car with them?<br /><br />We had one here a couple of weeks ago where a mother left two in the car to die while she had her hair done. It was 110 dgrees that day.<br /><br />No electric chair for her, I think we should use a pizza oven.

 

[sloopy]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

yum! pizza

 

[sloopy]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

yum! pizza!

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

I feel that those that did forget their kids had the same opinion as all of us. It is terrible, and seems like there is no excuse. We are human and we do make mistakes. It is one of those things that always happens to someone else and not you. <br /><br />So what is this going to do? It will probably be up to the manufacture's to develope a system that will send an alert to the parent about the child in the car seat, or some type of device to start the car to run the air condition. Regardless there is no replacement for direct supervision for the children. Even with constant supervision, there are times when toddlers can get out of sight within a minuet even when you are doing your best to watch them. I can remember being left behind somewhere. My parents where great ones. Mother a retired school teacher of 37 years. But she was the one that overlooked me when she left the store. Didn't know I was gone until she started counting heads to get ice creame. She didn't get harrassed for leaving me behind, I got my butt beat because I didn't stay close to the others. Plus didn't get the ice creame. Today they would have throwed her in jail. Sometimes I feel that civilization is getting in the way of our basic human instincts. <br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I am not upholding the parents that forget their kids. I just try to understand the causes for the mistakes. Again, accidents can happen to anyone regardless of how good a parent they are. Got to go to work now and I know I'll probably forget or misplace something, If I don't its going to be a great day!

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

r u kidding me??? forgetting your kids??? NEVER.<br />no excuse, no way. besides, all the stories I<br />hear, the parent(s) don't forget them, they just<br />leave them in the car and go about their business.<br />they should take their kids away for good IMHO.<br />this world is full of idiots and the numbers are<br />growing....

 

[DJ]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

The story I cited happened because the mothers "do" was more important than the children. She knew they were in there, just didn't care.<br /><br />It all boils down to the fact that many parents today are so wrapped up in themselves, they don't care about anybody/anything else.

 

[Beernutz]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

Gotta cast my vote for Marty, dj, and m-y.<br /><br />There's no excuse. Kids or pets. It's pure selfishness.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Why do People forget their babies in cars?

I have to agree that when the parent just down right neglects the duties of a parent for self gain is totally wrong. With this society having such a high diviorce rate, and so many single parents, no wonder moral and tradiional values are lost. We have young mothers that don't believe in abortion, but they will throw their child away in a dumpster? What's up with that? But what I was trying to get through is this, what if it was an accident? Such as the guy who had a big presentation to retain his job. The job that depended on him being able to meet his mortgage, and pay the utilities plus food for the table. His wife ended up sick in the hospital. For the first time ever he had the duty of taking his child to the day care. He was so involved with providing for his family he had to make sure that he was completely focused on his presentation. Yes he was too involved with keeping his job which supports the whole family, he forgot about the 2 year old asleep in the back seat of the car.<br /><br />Now with two other children that are school age, they lose their father to prison, their mother now doesn't have a decent income to support the house and children. She doesn't want welfare so she gets two jobs to make ends meet. Meanwhile the children are unsupervised while she is working because she can't afford a sitter. The children become gang members and on drugs eventually because of the lack of supervision. <br /><br />I know this sounds far fetched, but it does happen. When it is done on purpose, with thier knowledge of what can happen, it is no accident. They deserve to be put away. But when it is an accident, and the parent is torn up over it. It is more punishement to society by the other siblings not having their father or mother in thier life. <br /><br />I know that when I was a kid, my dad was cruel on the discipline. By todays standards he could be looking at life in prison. But you know what, I'm glad I was raised then instead of now. Because no matter what my dad did, he was my dad and I loved him dearly.<br /><br />Sometimes we need to think about the well being of the other siblings before we pass judgment on the parent at fault. It not only becomes another tax burden on us, but now we have children that is going to have problems with society since they took their parent away. When your a child, your mom and dad are the greatest! NO MATTER WHAT! You must think like the child to be on the childs side. IF you take away his mom or dad, they are going to hate you. <br /><br />Before we just start taking kids out of the home, you first should consider the consequences of doing so to the rest of the family. <br /><br />This is my point of view, keeping kids with a mother a father is the number one priority for them to have a healthy life with morals. Removing one for an honest accident is just making things worse. But if it was complete neglect, then let them be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.