A tragic list of chidren left in cars, with fatal results within the last two months!
How can a parent forget their child? "Everyone thinks these parents are bad or strung out on drugs, but parents who've lost their kids in these types of accidents include pediatricians, doctors, school principals, lawyers, and NASA engineers," she says. "For the most part, these are highly educated, extremely loving and doting parents."She says these accidents have little do with how good a parent is, and everything to do with how a memory functions -- or doesn't function. "In the early '90s, these cases were rare. But then in the mid-'90s, front passenger airbags were installed in cars and there was a huge campaign to get kids to move to the back seat. An unintended consequence of this was kids dying of hyperthermia in cars -- because children were out of sight, out of mind."In many of the cases, forgotten children are under the age of 1 in rear-facing car seats. Their parents are not sleeping much, which comes into play. "And in an overwhelming majority of cases, there has been a change in routine," Fennell explains.
I absolutely hate that the article ends with the author asking"What do you think of parents who've left kids in cars: was it a tragic accident or the result of just plain neglect?"
Can't miss a chance to bait people! I think people today are very quick to judge others, possibly as a consequence of the internet, where you randomly post comments about situations you may not have all the facts about. Whatever happened to the line of thinking, "where, but for the grace of God, go I"?
I'm thinking they should work on developing some type of sensor that goes off when a carseat is left in a car with extra weight in it....so an empty carseat wouldn't raise an alarm.
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4 comments:
I don't want to judge these parents, but, yes here is a but...But I just can't fathom how you can't remember you have a child in the back. Don't these parents keep looking in their rear view mirrors at their child to make sure everything is OK with them, I know I would be if I was the parent. I would be so self conscious knowing I have another living being in the car besides me.
So, I don't want to judge, but come on, how can you forget you have someone else in the car? Yes, we all tend to have very busy lives and a lot of things on our minds, but really, how can you forget?
Especially if the child is talking, how can you not know they are there, really. I don't want to judge them, but I guess I really am, aren't I......
Because most of these children are under age one-so they aren't talking yet. They're probably just asleep or quietly alert. And it also stated that many of these happen when there's a change in routine....a sleep deprived parent who doesn't usually take the child to daycare goes their usual route instead of to the daycare, completely forgetting the silent child in the back. In some of the cases it was a grandparent, so their could be some age-related forgetfulness or just, again, the fact that they don't usually have a child with them.
There are situations where it is plausible to forget a child-I think there was only one where the parent was in a bar, drinking for hours with an infant left in a car. The only ones I can't fathom are the times where someone leaves a child alone in a car in the heat ON PURPOSE. That is horrible.
This is not why I'm bothered by the judgemental attitudes people have, but in the interest of full disclosure......I did forget Jacob for about 2 mintues......not long after he was born I went to Target with my Mom and walked into the store, looked at the shopping carts and was horrified. We weren't parked far from the entrance and I realized it right away but I felt so bad. For about nine months whenever I was out with my Mom it was just me and her. I also had sleep deprivation factoring in there heavily, I think. I've had a hard time with that with Jacob simply because not only am I waking to feed him, but also to deal with three other kids waking with bad dreams and blankets kicked off, etc. etc. I really could not love my children more, but accidents do happen, even to otherwise responsible parents.
Good point Steph--we are only human. Because I have sometimes had such a lack of time, I can understand how a parent COULD forget.
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