Is it Ever OK To Leave A Child Unattended in a Car?
Posted by Amber Robinson at 2:33 PM on January 22, 2009
The worst nightmare of millions of parents was realised yesterday when 13-week old baby Elly Harold was unwittingly kidnapped in a car theft gone wrong.
Her mother Jodie says she ducked into a house to pay for TV repairs and left Elly asleep in the car with the air conditioning on and the keys in the ignition.
While she was only three metres away at the time (and parked in a suburban driveway), the car was stolen, sparking a statewide “amber alert”, with media and the public asked to be on the lookout for the car.
In the meantime, Elly woke up and wouldn’t stop screaming. The car thief panicked and called Jodie’s sister in-law on her phone (left in the car) before abandoning the Elly – and the vehicle – under a shady tree with the window down. Mother and baby were re-united within a couple of hours and Elly is unharmed.
I can’t even imagine how Elly’s mother felt in the time before her daughter was found. I’m sure the guilt and fear will haunt her for a long time to come. But no sooner had the child been saved before internet forums lit up with posts denouncing Jodie’s carelessness in leaving her child alone in the car. Apparently, the right thing to do is to remove your child from the car every time you leave – even paying for petrol and even if the child is asleep, which frankly I think is ridiculous, especially if you have a toddler who is not easy to carry.
We are not talking about a mother who locked her kids in the car while she played the pokies for three hours. We are talking about a new mum who, I assume, thought she was doing the right thing by leaving her sleeping baby in air-conditioning during hot summer weather.
Curiously, few have condemned the thief who stole the car in the first place. If he was acting responsibly he would have driven the baby to the nearest police station and turned himself in.
Typically, the mother is left to shoulder the blame. What do you do when you need to pay for petrol or pick up a carton of milk and you have kids in the car?
[The Age]
Please check out our website, http://www.KidsAndCars.com, there are so many dangerous things that can happen to children when they are left unattended in vehicles. I’m sure the many parents who have lost their children would say that waking them and taking them with you is a small price to pay in exchange for their life. She is not a bad mother, but let it be a lesson to all parents! Think about it….would you leave a million dollars in the car?
“Apparently, the right thing to do is to remove your child from the car every time you leave – even paying for petrol and even if the child is asleep, which frankly I think is ridiculous, especially if you have a toddler who is not easy to carry.”
How ridiculous to suggest that it is EVER ok to leave a child in the car, even if they are ‘not easy’ to carry.
How hard is it really to bring your child in to the shop for 5 minutes? A damn sight easier than planning a funeral I’ll bet.
And yes, I have kids and they were never left unattended. Just as I would never leave anything of value in the car either. Purse? check. Keys? check. Small defenseless human carrying my DNA? UMMM FREAKING CHECK!!!!
That woman should have been charged. And if I were ever so brain dead to do the same thing I would fully expect that I would be charged, too.
I mean, really. What a stupid thing to say. This is why people should apply for licenses to have children.
Hi!
I was doing a search and came upon this. I came home from work today, my husband was mowing the lawn, our daughter nowhere to be found. I asked him where she was, and he told me “sleeping”. I said “where is she?” and he said “in the car”. I FREAKED OUT!! He said “relax, i left the air on”. This does NOT sit well with me that he did this. I cannot find any info on the internet about this. Is this ok or not? He has done this before.
PLEASE….SOMEONE…get back to me ASAP!!
Thank you!!
Jess
Medgrl01@hotmail.com