Question for the day. I was reading the terrible story of the mother who left her baby in the car during a hot summers day because she was so overwhelmed with other things she had to do, and the baby died of heatstroke. It's a tragic story, and I can only imagine what this poor women will have to live with for the rest of her life. I have four children, and part of me thinks "there, but for the grace of God, goes I". When I'm out with the kids, leaving one behind somewhere is a particularly obsessive fear that I know I share with my wife, and probably millions of other parents.
And I got to thinking - my car beeps to tell me when I don't have my seatbelt on, and it beeps to tell me I forgot to turn the lights off. Why the hell can't it sense when the latches on a baby seat are still fastened and beep to warn me that too? Is it really that simple to save a life, and if so, why haven't I ever read that suggestion before?
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Jeebus, Scara. We were on a nice run this morning and suddenly you have post something serious. Nice going.
On that serious note, I'm right there with you on the fear of leaving one behind. Or worse, keeping them close enough so they don't look like an easy target to some freakshow casing the mall. Sucks, but what can you do?
Call us responsible parents. I see plenty of parents out there that could use a healthy dose of the same anxieties we have.
As far as the seatbelt thing is concerned, I've heard of that before. Not sure which manufacturer is trying to incorporate it, but it's out there somewhere. It would have to be fairly complex, though, because you would have to be able to designate which seat(s) you want the alarm on for (e.g. where's the car seat?), but it's doable.
I can only pray that I never become that overwhelmed where I make such a tragic mistake. My heart goes out to the family that lost their precious baby.
It still however leaves the million-dollar question in my mind... How do you forget a baby in the car seat? I'm really not being a bitch this time either. I've been overwhelmed, stressed, running late, pissed off, hormonal, depressed, cranky, moody, strange, busy, lazy, sleazy, thuggish, and downright stupid - and grabbing the baby from the seat was second nature. What kind of pressure enables someone to forget their baby in the car seat?
I think in the future we will be seeing that type of device in car seats. Look at how far we have come.
Hell, I remember as a little kid riding in the back window of my Parent's Ford Torino on a trip to Disney Land.
The real question is: Scar do you watch Opra?
I second Dave's question Scaramouch.
No, it was linked to on cnn.com.
But what if I did?
This is a horrible story. I feel for the mother, and understand that it was an accident.
I don't have children, but I can't even imaging forgetting my child. Did she not see the baby in the rearview mirror all the way to school? Didn't she have to walk around the car to get anything out of the backseat? I can't believe that know one saw the baby in the car all day.
O.K.- So I'm probably the biggest smartass in the world. Earlier when I read this post I didn't click the link to the full story.
So I go back and click the link just barely and read the story.
That's damn disturbing. That story made me feel sick inside and now I can't get the sick feeling to go away.
I love little kids and that kind of reading is about more than I can take.
I want to get pissed at the mom but then you just never know. How can you not feel bad for her.
I can't quit thinking about a little girl cooking in a car for 8 hours. My imagination is too much for this kind of crap.
I'm not kidding, I can't get that crap out of my mind. Now I wish that I hadn't read the story.
I also wish that I hadn't been a smartass earlier in the comment.
I just can't handle things happening to little kids.
Damn, I don't know how the hell stuff like that happens.
Mouch, don't print shit like this any more.
I hate reading stuff like that. Leave that crap to Opra.
This is akin to setting the car seat on the roof and getting in and driving off. It's disturbing. That mother should be sterilized before she has the opportunity to kill another kid.
No matter how busy your life is, there is no excuse whatsoever to forget that your child is in the Goddamn car!
Unfortunately as long as a moron with a penis and a moron with a vagina can figure out how to put tab A int0 slot B, they can reproduce. This poor kid never had a chance.
Oprah said "What happened to my guest today could so easily happen to any of you." Sorry Oprah, I have 3 daughters and I have never in my life forgotten that one of them is in the car. This is just plain neglect and negligence.
You make an interesting point Scara. You'd think they could do something about this. I guess it's just assumed that kids are loud enough that they can't be misplaced. Shit happens though.
It happened in my community just last week. It was a grandma who forgot the baby, because she normally doesn't have a baby in the car. Her daughter and grandchild had just moved in with her recently. Truly tragic.
i think gm and chrysler just found a solution to their slumping sales!!!
There was this prototype or concept for this type of 'accident'.
Anything left in the backseat of the car that moves will trigger a sensor just below the center rear view mirror, and would send a signal to your car keys.
It was a long time ago when I read about it, don't know if they implemented it or not. But it shouldn't be a substitute for being a parent.
Truly tragic indeed, I won't add to that.
However I strongly feel that a solution like "beep you forgot the baby" is not the correct one. It's another way to de-responsibilize people, It's not your problem anymore if you forget the child in the car, it's the car manufacturer fault!
Please, stop believing people are dumb. Accidents happen and will always happen, It's taking the responsiblitity (=the thinking) out of people that makes them dumb.
And I'm not saying that the mother of this child was dumb, not at all! I hope you get my point.
I don't like this kind of news too. It has been happening too much around here that every time I see something like this I call my baby to me and hold her in my arms for a little while.
We had at least two cases of babies being forgot in the car last year around here (as far as I know) and both because the routine was changed in a rushed day. Of course you can't forget that your kid's in the car, but if you think that you dropped him/her at school or nursery as everyday you do, you can fall on this memory lapse. I'm not justifying for what they've done, but it was what happened around here. Changed directions and heads puzzled.
But I would never do it. My little girl comes first.
But, we have a bigger problem. We have mothers who are so poor that they can't afford another kid just put'em in plastic bags and throw into trash cans, rivers... All right, I think they should think about it before getting laid, but sometimes girls get pregnant to try to keep their men around. Even knowing that the odds are low.
There is the story of an old lady, who was seated in her car at the mall parking lot, and something was preventing her from start it. She was so troubled that she went out to check if there was something wrong with her tires. Yes, indeed there was something wrong. Someone, who should've been sterilized, had left a baby under her car, near to one of the rear tires. Can you imagine it?
Not to mention the father who killed his own girl (5 y.o.) from his previous relationship because his new wife hated her.
That's the world we are leaving for our kids...
I have a fool proof solution to ensure I never leave my kids in the car. I wear a condom.
I'm inclined to believe that if you are capable of leaving your child in a dangerous environment such as an incredibly hot car, an active volcano, or inside a washing machine, you should not have had a kid in the first place. That said, since morons do have children, I don't think it's fair to implement a seatbelt device that detects the presence of children. Why make non-parents pay extra for a complicated feature that should not exist in the first place.
It's Orwellian, but sometimes I think passing a basic parenting test would be a good idea for some people before they have kids.
I don't think I disagree with those of you who say that "parents should be more careful", but it's the same as saying "people should remember to wear a seatbelt". I think in this case, it's hard not to blame the woman (and God knows how her husband deals with that) but it's also to simplistic to say "she should have been more careful". Personally, my comment about the beeping seat wasn't aimed at taking away a parent's responsibilities, it was about saving a child's life, no matter how moronic their parents may be.
I'm on that with you, johnj189...
All my friends tell me that I'm too much of a dictator when I come around with these ideas of Birth Control Department.
Some stupid folks would go straight to the sterilization room.
Amen Scara. Dumb people procreate, where else would we get NFL players.
I just can't believe someone would be this stupid though. It absolutely dumbfounds me.