BS: Children left behind in cars

Subject: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Wesley S
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 01:21 PM

Here in north Texas { where the temps are already in the 90's } we've already had several deaths of children in the last few weeks because their parents or caretakers have left them behind in a car. It doesn't take a child long to die from the heat in an enclosed car in the weather we have.

Does this happen in other parts of the country { and world } also ? We end up hearing that the adult was so busy that they forgot that the child was there. By the time they check the car again it's too late of course. How can someone be so busy that they forget they have a child with them ?? I guess I'm also suprised that the adult this happens to has almost always been a woman. I've only heard of one occasion where a man commited this crime - just recently up in Ohio.

I've only started hearing about this in the last few years. What is going on ? Have children lost their value ? Is this happening around the rest of the country and the world ? I'm baffeled.

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 01:37 PM

Hi, Wesley - This Google Search will give you some information.
No, it's not a new problem. It has existed as long as cars have had doors and summers have been hot. And even in our liberated age, it's still usually the mother who drives the kids around. It's a stupid thing to leave a kid or a pet in a hot car, but some people do stupid things even when you tell them not to.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 01:55 PM

I don't understand it either Wes, but maybe we think of our kids as more than luggage. The guy in Ohio was nearby here and didn't really have an explanation besides, "I just forgot," or words to that effect.

Also saw a strange one last night on the news. A woman was arrested on the Ohio Turnpike for breastfeeding her baby while driving. I had never thought about this one before, but as the child was out of a car seat, she was charged with endangering. I believe she was from Michigan because the news also reported that Michigan law has an exemption that allows women to breastfeed while driving. Are we in so big a rush in this day and age that pulling over is not an option? It gets very cold in Michigan and I think their brains may have frozen up on them.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Susan from California
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 02:28 PM

I know a family here in Southern California where the babysitter did this, left the baby in the car, and the baby died. There are now fairly strict laws against leaving a child in a car unattended. The family has since put up billboards, etc w/ their child pic and reminders not to leave babies in cars...

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 02:33 PM

We called the cops on someone who did this, with a new baby, all of the windows down, while they trooped into the store with their five other children, all of whom could walk on their own, so presumably that's why baby couldn't go in?! Good thing my ex was with me, or I would have TAKEN her out, then to the cops and probably been in trouble for kidnapping.

Anyway, I have postcards which are printed up with info about why folks shouldn't leave their pets in cars, let alone their children, some which includes:

Opening the window will not make enough ventilation in the car to cool your pet.

On a 90° day, your car can reach 160° in a few short minutes.

Your pet does not sweat. The pet must pant to cool down. The combination of heat-stress and hyperventilation means brain damage and death for the pet within 15 to 20 minutes.

I don't understand that dad in Ohio. I think people are in too much of a hurry, too stressed, and losing it BUT, I still don't consider any of those as any kind of excuse! Plus our society encourages us to be even more so, totally passing by the values of time with your family, good parenting, living a life of balance. The government is no kind of help or example, either.

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 03:56 PM

For my part, I think it is against my religion to prohibit breast feeding anywhere. Although I agree that haste makes waste.




A

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: SINSULL
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 05:31 PM

I saw a woman breastfeeding as she drove. She pulled up next to me at a red light and smiled. All I could think was that if the car behind her even tapped her at 20MPH, the baby's head would be crushed between her bulk and the steering wheel. Why not pull off the road to a safe place and breast feed?

My sister-in-law was working at a local church rummage sale when a woman came in upset that a newborn baby was locked in a car with the windows closed - 90+ degrees. They made an announcement over the speaker system but no one responded so they called the police. The woman then appeared and furiously told them to mind their own business. She had heard the announcement but went on shopping. The police took it from there. I don't know but suspect she was let go with a warning.

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 05:38 PM

Have these dumb bitches never heard of the bonding with their baby through quiet, restful breastfeeding? Unbelievable...can you imagine what the kid will be like, IF he makes it past the drive home? They should be taken from them until they learn better. Same with the ones who leave them in cars.

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Wesley S
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 05:43 PM

And just a few weeks ago we had a case where a woman and her boyfriend dumped her two twin girls out between lanes of cars stopped at a red light at a very busy intersection. According to her the girls were never in any danger because traffic was stopped at the traffic light.

It took her about a week before she turned herself in. She wanted to make sure she had a bond set up for her release. She spent less than an hour in jail before she got out. The trial will come up soon.

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: NicoleC
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 05:57 PM

Ah... evolution at work (poorly). The stupidest humans wouldn't be able to pass on their genes to the next generation if it weren't the smarter humans protecting the kids.

This is one of those areas that makes a strong argument for a competancy requirement to get a parenting license...

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 07:15 PM

Hang on, isn't it illegal to leave a child under the age of 11 unattended even in your own home? I'm sure that's the case here in the UK, although I'm not happy to be corrected - if it isn't, it should be.

People in the UK don't seem to realise how hot cars get, because we are simply not used to hot weather - we still have no idea how to cope. We jump into icy cold lakes and rivers, causing heart attacks and shock, we leave pets in locked cars, we put children in hot stuffy classrooms with windows facing the sun and expect them to concentrate on exams.....

It is easy to forget you have a child if that child is with a childminder all day, whilst you work. However, it's not always logistically possible for mothers to not work, so a childminder is a necessity. You switch into the wrong mode for a moment or two and that's it, suffocated, boiled baby.

And as for breastfeeding whilst driving... I'd call that 'driving without due care and attention' because unless the brat latches on like a leech and doesn't move or breathe, there ain't no way the driver can concentrate on the road. One nipped nipple at the wrong moment as as said above, baby is mushed up between mother and the wheel, and people are hurt. To pass a law granting immunity for breastfeeding mothers driving, is just plain stupid.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 09:09 PM

Well, I think it shows respect for maternity, even if in an unintelligent sorta way.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 12:29 AM

Can you see one of these babies as they grow up. Assuming it's a boy, as soon as he gets into heavy petting and sucks a tit, he'll get an uncontrollable urge to go for a drive.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 12:59 AM

Showing respect for THAT kind of maternity would be to sterilse any woman stupid enough to do so!

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 03:32 AM

The maternal instinct should be to protect and nurture the child at all costs - it's a remarkably strong instinct that will have ewes attacking wolves, rabbits attacking foxes and humans performing feats of strength they could never do otherwise (I kicked in a front door that Manitas had managed to let slam shut with he and I on the outside and an infant Bratling on the inside - only a few months after major surgery to get her out into the world!).

Somehow though, present some folks with a car and all this Darwinist 'survival of the fittest' stuff goes out the window. I'm horrified when I see children and babies not strapped into car seats, I won't move our vehicle until Bratling is secured, and I would never take her out of her seat whilst we were moving no matter how much she screamed or puked.

How about if it's a girl - every time she gets behind a wheel she's going to want to get her tits out! (Yes, I know some folks can see the benefit in that - it's still driving without due care and attention who ever does it!)

To juggle a hungry baby and a flapping pap is difficult enough. Driving a vehicle demands at least 75% attention ahead of you, so how on earth could you combine the two?

I can barely feed myself whilst driving, it shouldn't be legal to feed anyone else!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 03:44 AM

Incidentally I was once nearly arrested for criminal damage to a car when I tried to brick the window to give relief to the poor distressed dog left on the back seat. A policeman was passing, saw me do it and tried to arrest me. When I explained about the dog, he broke the window himself and arrested the driver instead for cruelty to animals when he came to see what was happening to his car. The drivers excuse? 'When I parked it on a south facing driveway, it was in the shade' - 6 hours previously! The dog survived but the bloke was banned from keeping animals for 3 years. I seem to remember the policeman adopted the dog.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: Desdemona
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 01:51 PM

It's interesting and disturbing to think about what must be the effect of contemporary life on basic human behaviour, isn't it? I mean, we now live in a world where people are so overscheduled and pressed for time that they're reduced to nursing infants behind the wheel of a moving vehicle, or abandoning them in cars for what I can only assume must be the momentary convenience of running errands without them.

I read a harrowing story about a mother of 5 who was so rushed and distracted while getting ready to drive the kids to school one morning that she backed over her 2 year old child in the driveway AND DIDN'T NOTICE. Some years back there was a father in our town who'd put his infant son in his car seat on top of the car while he strapped his toddler in. He drove off and was actually barrelling down the highway with the child on top of the car before it was brought to his attention. The child was fine (God only knows what happened to Dad when he got home!!!), but I had nightmares for weeks after hearing about it.

It all begs the question: what are we *doing* to ourselves?? Everyone I know seems to be rushing in 7 directions at any given time, we can never give our full attention to anything because we're always trying to deal with whatever's coming next...no wonder the instance of clinical depression in "highly developed" countries is skyrocketing! We don't even allow ourselves time to be human anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: Children left behind in cars
From: NicoleC
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 02:12 PM

But how much of it is real? The vast majority of people I know who are always rushing around spend an awful lot of time complaining about being busy while actually accomplishing little, yet still manage to spend 3 hours in front of the TV every night.

They wind themselves up and get stressed out rushing here and rushing there -- but don't get there any faster than you do if you aren't worried about it. They'll complain they don't have time to eat right, but will spend 30 minutes getting in the car and driving to a fast food restaurant for a greasy hamburger -- when you can cook an awful lot of healthy meals in less time than that.

We're constantly being told how busy we are and how fast-paced life is now. Speed is marketted to us in drive-thru windows and "fast" food and "fast" relief (of heartburn caused by fast food) and home delivery and "instant" messaging. Our machines have gotten faster, so like John Henry we feel we have to keep up with them.

I can't say that I think we as humans get much more done in the modern era than we did 10 or 20 or 100 years ago, but we've developed this attitude about it. And we just spend a lot more time worrying about it.