Reminds me of a story from the Ragamuffin Gospel...
This never happened back when kids never used child safety seats. This is where I place the blame. That and the stupid nanny state laws.
I rode in the front seat standing up. No seat belt. There’s no way I would’ve stayed in a hot car unattended. I woulda got out my own dam self.
Sadly, this kind of tragedy is so easily preventable. If you forget your car keys...that may cause an inconvenience. But forgetting to take care of your child can have some pretty serious consequences. I have no doubt he is heartbroken but that doesn't change anything.
Had it been a daycare worker who had left a child on a daycare van...there would be hell.to.pay.
I will not read it. I can imagine.
I just want to say that I am scatterbrained at times. But I would never forget my child in my car, and do you know why? Because he is ALWAYS with me. I am a stay-at-home-mom and my children are my #1 job, bar none.
I have a 7th sense since my first was born, and it’s the focus that is always there, making sure they are OK.
The only people that would forget their baby was in the car are people that are very often without their baby in the car.
What I forget, on the VERY FEW occasions he is not with me, is that I am not supposed to be in the carpool lane without him! Whoops! But a ticket beats losing my child to a horrible, preventable death.
I know the economy is terrible, but if at all feasible one parent should be with the kids.
This was not an accident. This was negligence, criminal negligence.
This kind of story is an annual Summer news event, like the winter fires blamed on space heaters. And it is almost always a Child Care Provider, probably licensed by the state, who leaves a trusting toddler in the back of a 20 passenger bus to die of exposure.
My thoughts are with the child, the trusting innocence of the child who's last thoughts are hope against hope that someone, any one, will be along any moment now to rescue me from this discomfort. A child who cannot verbalize their trust, and who dies, not knowing they will not awaken again.
Sorry, folks. There are exceptions, there are accidents, there is also the deliberate ignorance that used to be called stupidity. This is why Justice should wear a blindfold, so we can't intervene to save someone from the consequences of being deliberately ignorant.
Is the government at fault? Yes, surely, more for its making the Extended Family obsolete than for its attempts to tie soft pillows to all the sharp edges of the world.
It's a good argument for the death penalty, too. We don't have a punishment that fits the crime, here. Send him to God and let Him decide what to do with him. From what I'm hearing on this site, tonight, it sounds very much as though a lot of people believe, as I do, that there are a lot worse things that can happen to you than losing your life...
The one thing I cannot do is "blame Society." Save that line for the applause comment on Oprah.
Government’s answer to child safety in motor vehicles:
Step 1 - drug your child.
Step 2 - lock the child down in large plastic contraption.
Step 3 - fasten contraption in back seat away from any peripheral vision.
Step 4 - force child to stare at the upholstery throughout the trip until it is bored and falls asleep.
Step 5 - try to remember child is there once arriving at your destination like any other piece of luggage.