If, as you’re driving along with your child in the back of the car, you are thinking ‘OMG, is he still there/is she still breathing?!?’ every couple of seconds, you’re already being a negligent parent. Your attention should be focused on the more significant risks associated with driving a car.
Other people said the same thing in this thread in several different ways, but you put it most bluntly and poignantly. Great, great post.
The point is that at some point in your life you WILL do some sort of jerky thing that could have dire consequences for another human being. It could be thinking you already dropped the kid off but no, he’s in the back seat. It could be backing out of a parking spot just a little too carelessly and hitting someone. It could be missing a stop sign or blowing a red light. It could be accidentally locking yourself out of the house in the middle of a blizzard. All of those things are potentially avoidable and yet they do happen, even to careful, good, conscientious people. Why? Because human beings are fallible.
The arrogance of thinking you’re immune is simply appalling.
According to the article, about forty percent of cases like this do not lead to prosecution. Do you think the prosecutors in those cases failed in their duties by not pressing charges? Miles Harrison, the father whose trial opens the article, was acquitted. Do you think that the jury failed in their duty by not convicting him?
Hey, Hams, I thought I’d help you out here. See that emphasized bit in the quote box? That right there is where you were an insensitive asshole.
I’m not totally sure how you can’t realize that on your own. After all, that section is a nasty passive-aggressive swipe at choie. “After you shared your personal and painful tragedy, any response to it would just sound dickish. Now let me immediately follow with a response, because you TOTALLY had some fuckin’ bullshit straw men and unsupported conclusions in your post. But again, I won’t respond, even though I totally just did, since it would just raise the ire of posters who are just irrationally looking for offense. Oh, and sorry for your loss, or whatever.”
Hope that helps! :):):)
Kind of like if someone said, “Hey Hamlet, I’m not going to say fuck you, because that’s not allowed in the pit, so I’m just going to say I’m sorry for the compassionless void where your heart should be.”
This has totally worn me out.
Maybe we shouldn’t give some of these assholes any more traction to continue being assholes.
I’m done.
Alright, I’ll add a new level of smug to this.
I’m not attributing malice to parents who let such a thing happen. I’m attributing neglitient lack of awareness to them.
Cars are deadly traps for those who can’t effectively communicate to the outside. If you place someone under your guard in a car, you should always be critically aware of what you’re doing.
Putting an infant in a car should never be a part of your daily routine. Can’t stay at home? Can’t have someone come over to watch your child? Can’t live closer to work/daycare? Sorry, you’re not in a position to have children.
If you’re going to troll, you should be a little less obvious about it.
And if you’re not trolling, you should be a lot less fucking idiotic.
I have four of them, and all of my friends have kids as well. Only one describes himself as thinking of his child’s location every few minutes, and he is actually a diagnosed sufferer from OCD. Could be unrelated, and I’m not implying there’s much of a chance that any such connection holds in your case, but it seems relevant to point out since it explains where I’m coming from when I say
A) thinking like you describe is rare
B) thinking like you describe is not typically enabled by the way brains work.
Further evidence for these propositions is found in the linked article in post two, and countless other places you can find through google.
You say you think of your kid’s location every few minutes. Is this even so true as to imply that, for example, when your kid is across town from you at school or with a partner, every few minutes you consciously think about where your kid is?
[Moderating]
The comparison is apt, but also a violation of the Pit’s language rules. Please avoid doing this in the future.
No warning issued.
[/Moderating]
Over the years I have been the caregiver for a number of children while at the same time holding down a full time job or a part-time job while being a full time student. Never once have I left a kid in a hot or freezing car to die though DOG only knows there were times I certainly wanted to. If I can manage that when it’s not even my kid or a kid I even like, don’t expect me to have any sympathy for a parent that forgets their kid in similar circumstances.
You don’t have any sympathy for someone whose child died and you wanted to leave kids in cars to freeze or roast. I’m so shocked. Truly.
If the individuals we are discussing who had left kids in a hot or freezing car resulting in death had not been the parents, but other caregivers such as nannies or babysitters, plenty of Dopers would be ready to send them to prison. The fact that parents do this from time to time should not give them a free pass.
Second “wow” of the thread for me, as the dumbasses seem to just keep multiplying. You all are a testament to subhuman intelligence. Good job.
Oh, come on. You want to give them a fucking medal.
ETA: Or maybe you want them punished because otherwise they’d “get” to kill kids, something you wanted to do but just couldn’t.
Yeah, me too. Some of the others might’ve been surprising in their complete idiocy, but that response was a no-brainier.
My dear faithfool, it was the no-brainiEST. 
This is not what makes you different from anyone else in this thread.
Neither have I ever once left a kid in a hot or freezing car, but I can comprehend the possibility of it happening through entirely non-malicious circumstances.
I doubt she can conceive of anything happening through entirely non-malicious circumstances.