# Medicalizing irresponsibility: a term as ridiculous as "affluenza" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 23, 2017, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824 "2017-03-23T11:33:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Crazy\_Canuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazy_canuck/32/5282_2.png) [@Crazy\_Canuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazy_Canuck)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/141 "2017-03-29T15:42:42Z")
> [@eulalia](#): > > Nice how you cut off the first part, where I said that the statement that all men are potential rapists did not mean that every man is capable of rape. The statement has nothing to do with you indignant individual males who swear that you would never rape someone. It’s about entirely rational fear, because rapists do exist. Please stop trying to make it all about you. Nice how you refused to answer the question. I cut off your disclaimer because it was irrelevant. I’m not arguing that your fear is not rational. I’m asking how your fear of being sexually assaulted by a random man is different then my fear of being physically assaulted by a random black man. I should point out that I was once beaten into a coma, and I now require a cane to walk. My ability to run away from a bad situation is extremely limited. I feel that my fear of being physically assaulted is also entirely rational. So how is your fear different than mine? Why should society accommodate your fear while calling me a racist for mine? ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/142 "2017-03-29T17:09:39Z")
> [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](#): > > [Bolding mine.] My newer (2014) car apparently has a sensor that does just that. I have no babies, but when I’ve taken one of my cats to the vet, and buckled their carrier into the front seat, there is a light on my dash that indicates that the passenger side airbag has been turned off. Who built the car? Dopers: is this feature common? Ever hear of such a system? Maybe it should be required for parents of kids who ride in child seats. If the baby must be in aft-facing seat, does that make the passenger seat safe for the kid? If the airbag deploys, it will smack the back of the carrier. I’d think it would be impossible for it to harm the child. Get the baby back in the sight of the driver. I go back to the time of front bench seats - no seat belts, no anything to hold a baby. So some folks put the kid in a box on the floor in front of the passenger side. The side wall and the massive hump of the clutch and transmission made sideways restraint. the seat and the firewall limits forward/aft motion. It was not the very best of places, but at least the driver could not forget the kid. Moving the kid to the rear seat is just begging for these “Oops” moments. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/143 "2017-03-29T17:52:29Z")
Yes, such features (that sense the weight on the passenger seat and adjust or disable the passenger-side airbag appropriately) are common. I believe they’re even [required](https://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv18/cd/files/18ESV-000206.pdf) as part of advanced airbag systems. Google the term “occupant classification system”. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/144 "2017-03-30T00:48:50Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Yes, big dudes who go about in public learn to be conscious of the perception their size creates are they become big, unmannerly idiots. My husband is a big dude with dark olive skin who is frequently mistaken for Hispanic which in the part of the United States where we live most of the time is a minority as discriminated against and targeted for police harassment as blacks. Women cross the street all the time when he’s out in casual clothes. The only exception seems to be if he’s wearing a Star Trek T-shirt (word of advice those seem to cause women to read strange men as completely harmless and safe). Does he feel insulted when a woman crosses the street or clutches her purse when she sees them? No, because, he’s a gentlemen. Because he has female relatives who have told him about the problems they have had from strange men and he would rather be avoided than make a woman bothered and uncomfortable. “My husband is a dark-skinned, mistaken-for-Hispanic man, and he has learned to accept his place in society and submit to prejudice, because that’s what a gentleman does.” ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/145 "2017-03-30T06:21:12Z")
> [@Crazy\_Canuck](#): > > Nice how you refused to answer the question. I cut off your disclaimer because it was irrelevant. I’m not arguing that your fear is not rational. I’m asking how your fear of being sexually assaulted by a random man is different then my fear of being physically assaulted by a random black man. I should point out that I was once beaten into a coma, and I now require a cane to walk. My ability to run away from a bad situation is extremely limited. I feel that my fear of being physically assaulted is also entirely rational. > > So how is your fear different than mine? Why should society accommodate your fear while calling me a racist for mine? That was not an irrelevant disclaimer, it was the whole point I was trying to make, which you guys just seem unable to get. It’s not a different fear and as I said above, society shouldn’t call you a racist, unless you make some attempt to harm someone else for being black. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/146 "2017-03-30T10:14:51Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Who built the car? > > Dopers: is this feature common? Ever hear of such a system? My C1 has this, as well as a manual switch. The previous flowerpotcar, a Yaris hutchback, had a manual switch but no automatic switch off. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/147 "2017-03-30T13:54:52Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > “My husband is a dark-skinned, mistaken-for-Hispanic man, and he has learned to accept his place in society and submit to prejudice, because that’s what a gentleman does.” Being a gentlemen means using courtesy with everyone, not just the people you want to get something out of. He doesn’t “submit to prejudice”. He simply acknowledges the women are more vulnerable to violence and therefore have a legitimate reason to take precautions around men they do not trust. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/148 "2017-03-30T14:27:36Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Being a gentlemen means using courtesy with everyone, not just the people you want to get something out of. He doesn’t “submit to prejudice”. He simply acknowledges the women are more vulnerable to violence and therefore have a legitimate reason to take precautions around men they do not trust. I understand the point you’re making, but acknowledging that people around you have formed an opinion about you without knowing anything about you and just dealing with it is, _literally_, submitting to prejudice. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand why he doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers and possibly make things even worse for himself, but it is what he’s doing. ---
**Author:** ![Airbeck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/airbeck/32/6574_2.png) [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/149 "2017-03-30T17:55:09Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I understand the point you’re making, but acknowledging that people around you have formed an opinion about you without knowing anything about you and just dealing with it is, _literally_, submitting to prejudice. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand why he doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers and possibly make things even worse for himself, but it is what he’s doing. And the alternative would be…? What would be his other choice in these situations? ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/150 "2017-04-12T18:41:03Z")
I slept very poorly last Saturday and Sunday night; I probably got five hours over the two days. On Monday I broke my usual morning routine because I had to drop the wife off at the train station, which only happens once or twice a year. I then drove 3/4 of the way to work and remembered I had forgotten my computer, briefcase, wallet, parking permit, and student papers that needed to be returned. So I drove back home . . . Only to find that I had grabbed just my car key and SharkWife had been the one to lock the front door with her set and that set was now halfway to NYC. So I climbed over our backyard fence to get the secret key under the deck. I was puzzled as to why all of the dogs were in the backyard and not inside . . . it was because I forgot to herd them in and lock the back door when I did the “final house sweep before leaving.” My doggies are my life and I have NEVER forgotten to check they are inside and safe before I leave. My colleagues who have babies and toddlers are _perpetually_ exhausted and sleep-deprived; I suffered through just two sleepless nights and this, along with breaking my usual routine, threw everything out of kilter. Thank God I didn’t have a baby or pet in the backseat, I can easily imagine how a tragedy could have occurred because my brain was so tired and distracted. So, there but for the grace of God/Flying Sketti Monster, go I . . . ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/151 "2017-04-12T19:12:27Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I understand the point you’re making, but acknowledging that people around you have formed an opinion about you without knowing anything about you and just dealing with it is, _literally_, submitting to prejudice. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand why he doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers and possibly make things even worse for himself, but it is what he’s doing. The man in question is not doing anything different. He is continuing to freely walk down the street. The only thing he is not doing is becoming offended when women avoid him. What is the alternative? Should he walk around bristling with rage and yelling nasty comments at people? ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/152 "2017-04-12T19:13:56Z")
Cool story. I see nothing in it about a baby. Just absentmindedly forgetting stuff that is demonstrably NOT an infant baby. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/153 "2017-04-12T20:25:35Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Cool story. I see nothing in it about a baby. Just absentmindedly forgetting stuff that is demonstrably NOT an infant baby. Let me help you, apparently you skipped this paragraph when you read the article several times: > [@](#): > > “Some people think, ‘Okay, I can see forgetting a child for two minutes, but not eight hours.’ What they don’t understand is that the parent in his or her mind has dropped off the baby at day care and thinks the baby is happy and well taken care of. Once that’s in your brain, there is no reason to worry or check on the baby for the rest of the day.” Those people are not **manson1972** , however, who checks on his children every three seconds whether they are being cared for or not. So they are negligent. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/154 "2017-04-12T20:30:35Z")
sorry, I meant the new story posted today. I forgot to quote it and another post snuck in before mine. Please reread and then re-comment. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/155 "2017-04-12T20:38:25Z")
And since you went through the trouble of posting: > [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Let me help you, apparently you skipped this paragraph when you read the article several times: \*\*“Some people think, ‘Okay, I can see forgetting a child for two minutes, but not eight hours.’ What they don’t understand is that the parent in his or her mind has dropped off the baby at day care and thinks the baby is happy and well taken care of. Once that’s in your brain, there is no reason to worry or check on the baby for the rest of the day.” \*\* Yes, and those parents are stupid. “There is no reason to worry or check on the baby FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!” Really? When your baby is in daycare, NOBODY thinks “Hmmm, wonder what junior is doing right now? Hope he is not crying too much.”?? You just put your baby out of your mind for 8 hours? Not a single thought? Guess those parents getting nanny cams are just over-worrying parents. I mean, worrying or checking in on their baby while the nanny is watching them? That’s just preposterous! Those are hours that the parents could NOT be worrying or checking in on their baby! :rolleyes: Stupid, just plain stupid parents. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/156 "2017-04-13T14:38:44Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > And since you went through the trouble of posting: > > \*\*“Some people think, ‘Okay, I can see forgetting a child for two minutes, but not eight hours.’ What they don’t understand is that the parent in his or her mind has dropped off the baby at day care and thinks the baby is happy and well taken care of. Once that’s in your brain, there is no reason to worry or check on the baby for the rest of the day.” \*\* > > Yes, and those parents are stupid. “There is no reason to worry or check on the baby FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!” > > Really? When your baby is in daycare, NOBODY thinks “Hmmm, wonder what junior is doing right now? Hope he is not crying too much.”?? You just put your baby out of your mind for 8 hours? Not a single thought? > > Guess those parents getting nanny cams are just over-worrying parents. I mean, worrying or checking in on their baby while the nanny is watching them? That’s just preposterous! Those are hours that the parents could NOT be worrying or checking in on their baby! :rolleyes: > > Stupid, just plain stupid parents. Okay, so you _haven’t_ actually read the article, and now I doubt that you’re actually a parent. Yes, when you truly believe that, for example, the other parent has taken care of Junior, you relax. Otherwise, what sort of manic distrustful marriage do you have? If every parent called every daycare every hour, caregivers wouldn’t have any time to watch the kids. I pity the daycare that would have to look after your fictional children. One thing I can tell you from my own upbringing: I have been forgotten, somewhere, by each and every member of my own family. My own mother, who drove me to and from school every day, drove all the way home one day while I was waiting for her to pick me up. Thirty minutes, and it never occurred to her that I wasn’t with her, the way I always was. She had to drive another 30 minutes back to get me, and another 30 home. So I **know** it happens, and not out of malice or extreme inattention. She had been out of her routine for a few days, and the first day back, she just plain forgot. **It happens.** Especially when all of your safeguards against forgetting happen to fail on the same day, like they did for Lyn Balfour. Read the damn story. Read it again and again until you can rewrite it in your own words. And then pray it never happens to anyone you know. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/157 "2017-04-13T17:10:30Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Okay, so you _haven’t_ actually read the article, and now I doubt that you’re actually a parent. Yes, when you truly believe that, for example, the other parent has taken care of Junior, you relax. > > If every parent called every daycare every hour, caregivers wouldn’t have any time to watch the kids. I pity the daycare that would have to look after your fictional children. Yes, I have read the article, and yes I am a parent. The quote I posted did NOT say call every hour. It said that parents should not even worry or think about their infant children for 8 straight hours. You HONESTLY believe that there is a parent that doesn’t think or worry about their infant child for 8 hours (assuming they are not asleep)?? You must, since you seem to believe that leaving an infant child in a car to die is something that could happen to anyone. Maybe it only happens to people who have the ability to not worry or think about their infant children for long stretches of time. > [@](#): > > One thing I can tell you from my own upbringing: I have been forgotten, somewhere, by each and every member of my own family. My own mother, who drove me to and from school every day, drove all the way home one day while I was waiting for her to pick me up. Thirty minutes, and it never occurred to her that I wasn’t with her, the way I always was. She had to drive another 30 minutes back to get me, and another 30 home. So I **know** it happens, and not out of malice or extreme inattention. She had been out of her routine for a few days, and the first day back, she just plain forgot. **It happens.** Especially when all of your safeguards against forgetting happen to fail on the same day, like they did for Lyn Balfour. Wow! You went to school when you were an infant? Did they have a car seat in the school bus? If not, then I don’t see what your cool story about your forgetful mother has to do with leaving an infant child in a hot car to die. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/158 "2017-04-13T18:18:38Z")
I’m just going to address every point with a quote from the **Washington Post** article from here on out. > [@Slash1972](#): > > Yes, I have read the article, and yes I am a parent. The quote I posted did NOT say call every hour. It said that parents should not even worry or think about their infant children for 8 straight hours. You HONESTLY believe that there is a parent that doesn’t think or worry about their infant child for 8 hours (assuming they are not asleep)?? “Several people – including Mary Parks of Blacksburg – have driven from their workplace to the day-care center to pick up the child they’d thought they’d dropped off, never noticing the corpse in the back seat.” > [@](#): > > You must, since you seem to believe that leaving an infant child in a car to die is something that could happen to anyone. "What kind of person forgets a baby? The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the last 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. An accountant. A soldier. A paralegal. An electrician. A Protestant clergyman. A rabbinical student. A nurse. A construction worker. An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist." > [@](#): > > Maybe it only happens to people who have the ability to not worry or think about their infant children for long stretches of time. ““Memory is a machine,” [David Diamond] says, “and it is not flawless. Our conscious mind prioritizes things by importance, but on a cellular level, our memory does not. If you’re capable of forgetting your cellphone, you are potentially capable of forgetting your child.”” > [@](#): > > Wow! You went to school when you were an infant? Did they have a car seat in the school bus? If not, then I don’t see what your cool story about your forgetful mother has to do with leaving an infant child in a hot car to die. "It was “a big doggone accident,” [James Schlothauer, foreman of the jury that acquitted Lyn Balfour] says, that might have happened to anyone. To anyone? Schlothauer hesitates. “Well, it happened to me.” The results were not catastrophic, Schlothauer says, but the underlying malfunction was similar: Busy and stressed, he and his wife once got their responsibilities confused, and neither stopped at day care for their daughter at the end of the day. “We both got home, and it was, ‘Wait, where’s Lily?’ ‘I thought you got her!’ ‘I thought you got her!’ “ What if that mix-up had happened at the beginning of the day? “To anyone,” Schlothauer says." ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/159 "2017-04-13T19:01:46Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > I’m just going to address every point with a quote from the **Washington Post** article from here on out. I’ll just address a couple points: > [@](#): > > “Several people – including Mary Parks of Blacksburg – have driven from their workplace to the day-care center to pick up the child they’d thought they’d dropped off, never noticing the corpse in the back seat.” Several. SEVERAL! Several people have not noticed the corpse of their baby in the back seat. SEVERAL PEOPLE! As opposed to the millions upon millions of people who did NOT do that. But somehow, instead of there being something wrong with those SEVERAL people, millions upon millions of other people must be capable of doing the same thing those SEVERAL stupid people did?? > [@](#): > > "It was “a big doggone accident,” [James Schlothauer, foreman of the jury that acquitted Lyn Balfour] says, that might have happened to anyone. > > “To anyone,” Schlothauer says." Well, I guess that since one foreman of a jury and A GUY WHO FORGOT HIS KID AT DAYCARE say it could happen to anyone, then they must be right! A guy who forgot his kid at daycare couldn’t POSSIBLY be biased on who is capable of forgetting their kid at daycare. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824/160 "2017-04-13T20:14:54Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Yes, I have read the article, and yes I am a parent. The quote I posted did NOT say call every hour. It said that parents should not even worry or think about their infant children for 8 straight hours. You HONESTLY believe that there is a parent that doesn’t think or worry about their infant child for 8 hours (assuming they are not asleep)?? You must, since you seem to believe that leaving an infant child in a car to die is something that could happen to anyone. Maybe it only happens to people who have the ability to not worry or think about their infant children for long stretches of time. I have two kids. Both went to daycare and preschool. sure I probably thought about them multiple times each day. What does that have to do with this situation? Does anyone pick up the phone and call to check on their child everytime they think about them? I probably reached out to contact the school or daycare center to check up on my kids a couple of times a year, not a couple of times a day. Because unless I thought they might be getting sick or have some other unusual situation, I trusted my day care provider. Otherwise, my kids would not be there in the first place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medicalizing-irresponsibility-a-term-as-ridiculous-as-affluenza/782824.md?page=9)