Yes, You Can Leave Your Kids in the Car for a Few Minutes

This subject came up to me today. I have a automatic car starter alarm on my car key chain. I am able to lock the car, set alarm and start it and keep the keys with me. I have left my daughter (4 year old) in the car to run a simple errand like paying for gas. returning a video, getting a newspaper. I live in Louisiana. In summer months the temperature gets really high, also in winters when it does get below zero at times.

I would not leave her in the car for any other reason, only because of her age. I have educated my daughter about car safety, to stay in her seat, my window locks are always on, and she cannot open the door on the inside. She does not get up and climb all over my car or try to reach for things up in the front.

allow me to quote the email I received today:

"ANYBODY who leaves a child in the car for ANY reason is IGNORANT at best. I don't care how many times you have done that or not, 1 time is 1 time too many! I am a teacher and I am telling you that it is irresponsible, and ILLEGAL. THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION IN YOUR ACTIONS REGARDLESS! I have 3 children and I am by far not perfect, nobody is but I have COMMON SENSE. If you are the loving mother that you say you are you would never put your child in precarious situations like you have..... you don't fool me. Get a clue"

Now this girl is only going on a conversation I had with my best friend where I mentioned running to pick up a ready prescription for my sick daughter. I left her in the car, buckled in, car locked, alarm on, I had the keys in my possession, ac on, windows locked and the door child lock. for 2 min to pick up a ready rx.

If I did not know her character, if I did not have the alarm/lock/ac option and if I was unsure whether she could or could not be trusted to be left to sit still for a moment. I would of course take her. However, I also like a previous poster do not live in a constant state of fear. I do not need her to be in a bubble. I cannot protect her always. if she falls and hurts herself because she did not listen to me, when I said "no running in flip flops you will fall", then now she knows what will happen, and wont do it again. I just am prepared with band aids in case.

I believe in teaching by example and showing me she can be a big girl and be trusted. I reward her with a special prize when she follows directions and rules. She still gets in trouble, gets in time out and she gets toys taken away when she is bad, but she has to earn them back. I hold her hand at all times when we are outside or walking around a store. She is MY responsibility, no one elses.

I do not believe I am what this person described me as at all. My daughter has manners, is respectful and kind. She is a very happy, playful, (spoiled) life loving little girl. She knows her boundaries and what she is allowed to do. I show her how to do something independently and I do not let her do it on her own unsupervised until I am 100% confident she can do it. I have told and shown (when I can) what happeneds if she does something that will hurt her or others to where she will possibly not do it.

The type of people who this describes would be the parents driving with the children not properly restrained in the car for their age or otherwise. Parents who cannot properly bundle their children in cold weather, or parents who live in squaller conditions. People who have children who are a little high strung (not talking adhd) but give the child caffein soda all day, then yell at them when they are all hyped up on sugar to calm down and pay attention. That is Careless to me. For a child who is dependant on an adult to make the choices and decisions to keep them safe and healthy, then it is the adults responsability to do so. Unhealthy choices in food and usafe conditions to live in are careless.

How many people have the kids play in the playroom or watch TV while you vacuum, bring down the garbage or do the dishes? It all depends on the character and upbringing of the child. If you teach the child right and wrong then you can trust that they wont turn into yard apes as soon as you turn your back for a second.

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I once left my four year old, buckled up in the car, windows down, sixty five degrees outside, for "just a minute" to check my post office box. That really does only take a minute, not like going in a store. I could see the car the entire time. Well, I dropped my mail, which took me a minute to pick up, then I had to wait for a disabled man to get out the door. I looked over and my child's head was trapped in the window; she had been playing with the electronic window opener. The car was not running; the electronic window opener still worked as long as the doors hadn't been opened. Thank God she was okay; just a lot of bruises. Ten more seconds and according to the ER doctor, she would have been capitated. Please don't do it; it's not worth it.

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When I was little my parents routinely took me on errands. My dad owned a cleaning service and would often take me along when people paid him. I clearly remember one time when I was about 4 years old; my parents had gone inside a store to pick up their check. I, in the meantime, explored the car and found a packet of razor blades that are used for scraping windows clean. By the time my parents came back to the car my fingers were bleeding. My parents weren't gone more than 5-10 minutes.

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Odds, what odds? Who in their right mind would gamble with their kids lives. My "kids" are 35 and 34 and I NEVER left them alone in the car, they were way too precious to me to have something happen to them. Call me paranoid but I would never forgive myself if something had happened.

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I think it's all about using common sense. If I'm going grocery shopping, I'm taking my kid with me. If I'm dropping off some mail and can see the car, my son can stay if it's not too hot.

As for people calling the cops when they see a child left in a car...they don't know whether your child has been in there for 2 minutes or 2 hours. Be THANKFUL that they care.

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I have and do leave my child in the car, alone, for brief periods of time but very infrequently.

When I go grocery shopping, I come home with too much to carry into the house without making 2 or 3 trips. So my son sits comfortably in his car seat in the car while I make 2 or 3 trips into the house.

My car has remote keyless entry/auto-start, so I can leave the air (cooler or heater) running without the ignition on and my keys remain with me so no one can break in and drive off. Also, I have a habit of always enabling the Emergency Break whenever I leave my car even though my car is an Automatic.

One day I was making a "quick trip" into the grocery store while my child sat in the car. I was picking up my son's birthday cake... so I grabbed a nearby cart and was heading to the store when a pick-up truck came speeding through the parking lot and crashed THROUGH a parked motorcycle that I happened to be walking by on my way. The motorcycle flew directly at me and broke my left arm and leg, however the shopping cart was completely demolished by both the flying motorcycle and the pick-up truck that struck it and then pinned it between another vehicle where it came to a stop.

Later, I found out the driver was an epileptic who suffered a seizure due to the heat that day.

I find myself fortunate that I did leave my child in the car that time because there are 2 possibilities that never had a chance of happening. First, my son might have been my arms when I got hit by the motorcycle and second, he might have been in the shopping cart that got hit by both the motorcycle and the truck...

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I' m OK with this if the parents use their comment sense!
#1 - Babies or toddlers strapped in a car seats, unable to unbuckle themselves won't go anywhere. I'd be more hesitant if the children were older: they could get out of the car or start playing with the shifter or parking break... that could be trouble even if the car is not running.
#2 - If you're going in a small shop for a quick errant, where you're parked at the storefront AND you can see them through the window, that seems fine. I wouldn't go for groceries or to the mall!
#3 - Outdoor temperature. If it is a comfortable or cool day that's fine or leave the window open if it's a bit warmer. Of course you won't leave your kids in the car if it's freezing or in blazing summer sun!
Yes, parents have gone to work, forgetting the child in the car...that's a whole other story. If you know you easily get distracted, you won't leave your kids in the car (I hope so). It's unfortunate but accidents happen and they are not all preventable. Car accidents are a bigger threat to your child... but ditching the car is not a feasible option. Even at home there are many hazards. We can't keep our children in a bubble, right? You can't be overreacting all the time. There needs to be a happy medium for a safe and enjoyable life. People just have to use their good judgement.
Laws are supposedly there to "protect" people, but I sometimes feel the government is trying to dumb us down. The law does not teach us anything. We are not taught to think, use our common sense or be smart...it's unnecessary cause the "law" does it for us. We just follow... like a herd of sheep. These kinds of laws protect the feeble-minded population. In the good old days stupid things happened to stupid people and that's how you LEARNED. Sounds harsh but that's how I see it. Sorry for my rant!

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