Every time I see one of these stories, I get more pissed off. I’ve got two year old twin boys and I’m constantly putting them into and taking them out of car seats. These kinds of stories just hit too close to home. It’s way too easy for me at this point to imagine a child in a car seat. I really wish stories like this would just go away, I don’t need those images in my subconscious waiting to be morphed into twisted nightmares. Here’s the latest:
10-month-old son of UC Irvine professor dies after being locked in car for 3 hours.
Which of course leads to the natural question, “HOW THE FUCK DO YOU FORGET YOU LEFT YOUR CHILD IN THE CAR FOR THREE FUCKING HOURS?” Of course your level of profanity may vary.
The father was by all accounts a loving father so what could possibly explain this? Assuming he had to make a stop at the office he either: A) forgets he had the child with him, or B) knows he has the child with him, but looses track of time while he left the child in the car.
If the answer in this case is A, I still don’t get it. How can you be so self absorbed as to forget that you are currently the custodian of your child? I just really don’t understand it.
Rachel Lucas tackled this topic last month. Her advice still applies:
DON’T LEAVE YOUR CHILDREN IN THE CAR WHEN IT’S HOT OUTSIDE.
It is truly baffling that people STILL fail to heed this simple advice.
Update: Jay rightly points out that the better advice is: DON’T LEAVE YOUR CHILDREN UNATTENDED IN A CAR, PERIOD. It is of course stating the obvious, yet somehow there are always some who apparently don’t get it.
I saw the story in the local paper and had the same reaction.
I just don’t get it.
(and it was made even more surreal by the fact that I earned my BA at UCI).
Shouldn’t it be DON’T LEAVE YOUR CHILDREN ALONE, period.? Especially a running car. Does anyone still remember that story on Oprah about the kid that suffered an unspeakable way to die because her mom left the car running while she ran into a 7-11? Yeah that one.
I’m not a parent, but I do have a dog. There’s no way I would leave my pet in the car on a hot day, much less my child.
It boggles the mind.
It was the stuff of my nightmares both times I was pregnant, but I really didn’t ever understand it, either.
Of course, my children were mouthy babies (and are mouthy teenager/pre-teen, now).
I will neverunderstand it. Never.