Please start arguing against what I said instead of your fallacious strawmen.
kathmandu See above.
The original article which I read indicated she parked in a fire lane, while leaving her child sleeping and taking the other two to the Salvation Army bucket for pictures.
Sorry-you lose. No parking in fire lanes. If it is marked “Loading Zone” then use it for the marked purpose. Want to drop off Grandma to get her prescription? Fine. But don’t sit there while she’s inside.
Likewise for this lady. If she wants to leave her child in a locked car in the parking lot, that’s her business, so long as the car is properly parked. She may be an asshole, but at least she’s a properly parked asshole.
Do you even know what a strawman is? To paraphrase, MsWhatsit posited the situations of dropping a letter in a mailbox and using an outdoor ATM where you are only a few feet from the car. Your response was you shouldn’t be in that situation, you should have gotten a babysitter. That response was ridiculous.
Yep. That’s about the sum of it.
The fuck it was! I’ll wait right here till you find it, here’s a clue, see post 17 or where I quoted myself in post 53. You’re busy making up your own absurd situations and attributing them to me, try reading for comprehension.
The f*** what was, and till I find what? First of all, I was responding specifically to your post 43. What I said had nothing to do with post 17 or 53, or any other post for that matter. Secondly, I attributed nothing to you that you did not say. Try reading your own posts for comprehension.
I’m going to go ahead and move this from In My Humble Opinion to The BBQ Pit so that folks can express themselves without restraint.
Gfactor
General Questions Moderator
I’m sorry if my posts contributed to this getting kicked to the Pit. I guess all I meant to say is that there’s got to be some middle ground. It’s silly to say that it should be left up to a parent’s judgment, because clearly that judgment can sometimes be bad (leaving a kid in a hot car). It’s equally silly to say that there is no situation in which it’s all right to leave a child in a car unless a parent is in the car with him.
Fessie, don’t take this harshly, but what you’ve written here is about 20 years out of date.
-FrL-
We’re probably talking past each other. I was responding to the general “it’s time consuming to take kids buckle kids in/out” “when I was a kid”… arguements. I acknowlege it could be read the way you did (fucked up parsing on my part, I just used your post as a jump off point) however since I said precisely the opposite earlier in this thread, I thought my general meaning was clear. I apologize for getting snarky.
Which is what I’ve been trying to argue, I also a apologize for being short with you.
No harm, no foul. Hey, I know I’m pretty new posting here, but aren’t things supposed to get less civilized once a thread gets moved to the Pit?
I’m not sure how this story relates, but I’ll tell it anyhow.
I was entering a casino at the same time a couple with a small child, maybe 10-12 years old, was trying to enter. The security guard intervened, saying there were no minors allowed in the casino. I expected them to turn around and leave, but no. The dad gave the car keys to the kid, and said “Go wait in the car.”, and the parents went in. I was pretty appalled, but the guard didn’t say anything.
So this kid was sent out to wait in the car for an indefinite period in Baraboo, Wisconsin. How neglectful is this? There was no question of course that the kid could be trapped in the car. But the kids could have been assaulted or kidnapped, in theory. Or wandered off, or decided that “Today is the day when I learn to drive”.
I think this relates to the OP in the sense that the odds were that nothing bad will happen, and once in a great while an odd circumstance arises when it seems like the logical thing to do. And mostly it works out. But if it doesn’t you are thoroughly totally screwed, and you will be vilified by everyone if things go against the odds and your child is harmed.
I wish that were true. Based on my experience and that of most (but not all) of my girlfriends, I’m quite right.
Waitasecondholdon – you’re talking about real SAHDs, right? Yes, you’re right, I’m wrong. And out of date.
Anybody who’s truly done the mama-drill 24/7 with more than one child wouldn’t say that hauling kids around is a breeze.
Yep, that’s what I meant.
And there are also those of us (mostly in the younger crowd) who alternate stay-at-home status from day to day. For example, I “have the kids” on Mondays, Wednesdays, Friday and Saturday mornings, while my wife “has the kids” on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Friday afternoons. (On Sundays we get to be a real live family.)
I don’t have actual statistics or anything, but I do think it would be incredible if “stay at home dads” of either the full time or part time variety were not much more common today than you originally implied.
I’m the father of three teenaged boys. I’ve had custody of my boys since they were5, 7, and 9 and off and on custody longer even longer. I know hauling kids around aint easy, it doesn’t change my position one iota.
Kids shouldn’t really ever be in cars anyways.
From my quick google search:
~340 kids died in hot cars over a 10 year period (not the best cite but it will work).
and
1794 kids under 14 who died in car accidents in 2006 (cite).
Obviously cars are dangerous things. I would suggest simply walking with your kids, but alas that is also bad for kids: 331 kids under 14 died as pedestrians in 2006 (same cite as above).
Seems the only safe thing to do is lock them in a bubble.
I have left my young sons unattended (ages 6 and 2) in a running car all the time. The major problem I keep encountering is front-end damage to my minivan because my supposed “big man” six-year-old can’t reach the goddamn brake pedal when he keeps putting the van into gear when I go on my drunken gambling sprees. I keep telling the little fucker to mash the brake with his hand, but he JUST WON’T LISTEN!!!
:dubious:
Seriously though, I have left them in the car while running inside a convenience store to grab something real quick, they are always buckled up, I lock the car and set the alarm, and somehow I actually feel a little guilty, as my head is craning like a monkey on a stick trying to keep the car in view as I run in and do my thing right quick. I only do this in winter or cool weather, though, when the kids are bundled up already, the inside of the car is already warm and it’s something that takes two minutes or less. I would NEVER leave my kids in the car in the heat of the Summer for ANY length of time.
What slays me is (and kids) is people that “forget” their kid is in the car. How on Earth does this actually happen? I mean, seriously? How do you forget that you had a child in a car seat in the back of your car, and waltz into work or whatever like they aren’t there?
I may be an oddball, but: I have two now grown up children and I never, ever, once left them alone in a car when they were small. They came with me or they stayed home with another responsible adult. (Of course I live in a state where I don’t have to leave my car to pump or pay for gas. ) I went to a lot of trouble to come by those kids, and I kind of like them a lot, and it was just not worth it to me to have to worry about their wriggling out of the car seat, throwing up and choking, being kidnapped, or stuck in the car as it spontaneously combusted, whatever. No, I could not protect them from every risk. Heck, kid # 2 has a scar over one eyebrow from the time when she was a toddler and toddled over into the corner of a table – while I was less than 3 feet away from her.
The age of the child makes a big difference as well. We allow a 10-year-old to go about the neighborhood to his friend’s house unattended, they can walk to school or the bus stop alone, no problem. But not a 3-year old and certainly not an infant!
That’s really lovely. One of those times when I’m glad to be wrong.
I enjoy watching Supernanny and seeing how much Jo emphasize the importance of fathers.
Oh, and the times my kids have choked on chicken nuggets, it’s been while I was in the car with them. Only recently have I begun to let them eat out of my sight/hearing.
I can’t imagine truly never, ever needing to leave the kids in the car for a minute or two. You people must be WAY organized.
What I really wish is that Walgreens would let you buy a half gallon of milk and some OJ at their pharmacy drive-thru. Instead I’ve been known to swing through McD’s and pay out the nose for liquids on occasions when ALL THREE OF US are sick.