Leaving Kids in the Car

[Katy]

My "baby" turns 28 this week, but I often have 2, two year old granddaughters along with me, and sometimes a one year old too. So I am not unfamilair with what a pain in the rear it can be to drag them out with me.....but I always do. I would never dream of leaving them in the vehicle unattended. The world is a different place than it was when my kids were that age and I would never want to risk something happening with them.

 

[sred98]

This is a good thread. Here in Oklahoma, they passed a law stating the the age a child can be alone in the car is 8, and if there is a child younger than that, the oldest has to be at least 12. Of course, extreme heat or cold situations fall under the DHS guidelines.

That being said, I do leave my kids alone in the car if they do not want to go in. My youngest is 8, then the 10 yo, and the 14 yo. The 2 youngest cannot stay in the car together by themselves. They will get into mischief. I leave the car running, locked, and make sure they have a cell phone. a lot of times, they end up calling and chatting with me on the cell phone while I am in the store. They know the drill, and we live in a small town, also. I do not do this if we go into the city or are in a strange town.

As far as the gas station goes, half the time they want to help pump the gas, and go in and pay. So I am usually the one left in the car alone! LOL!

Shelly

 

[Dar]

There is no really cut and dry answer IMO...

my DS who is now 18, well when he was 12 I would NEVER leave him in a car alone with keys or without... why ?..cause if the keys were in it he would want to "learn how to drive"... and if the keys were not in it he would want to see if he could hot wire just from watching the good old TV.... (my oldest needs a ton of couch time BTW)

My 2nd DS, I would and have left him in the car with and without keys as young as 10... why?... because he is a responsible young man.... (and he's afraid of getting in trouble)... o he is
12 now.

My DD... I may try leaving her alone when she is 18....

Here in Ontario there is no "law" when a child can be left alone in their home... like after school sort of thing. If a parent feels that their child is responsible enough then you are good to go. I got that information from my family doctor and confirmed it with CPS


eta:
o and with gas stations... when they were really young and i needed gas and did not feel like hauling them out of the seat... I went to a full service gas station or a station that has the pay at the pump feature... my kids were never left in the car even while i paid for gas.

 

[paddock36]

My suggestion would be to call your local law enforcement and ask. In Florida there is state statute prohibiting leaving children under a certain age in a car unattended and it differs if the car is running or not. Actually there is statute against leaving your vehicle running unattended too.

 

[MissPrissy]

Call your local law enforcement office. We were told here a child age 14 or older may be left in the car or left in charge of younger children. Any child younger than that is it child endangerment especially in certain weather - extreme heat etc.

I have issues with this. I have big issues with it. My kids don't fit the norm of untrustworthy and unable to properly supervise themselves or my youngest son.

My truck has a/c, dvd and I can lock it and leave it running as it has a door key code or from a remote start. My kids 12 (this week) and 3 (almost 4 in Feb.) would rather sit in the a/c and watch a movie instead of following me in the PO or the pharmacy and have to stand in line and wait most summer days. The same in the winter in a warm vehicle.

But they can't because some fool went to a casino and left a baby in a car in 100 degree weather for 10 hours, or the woman went to work and forgot the baby was in the backseat and didn't take it to the daycare and it sat in the parkinglot roasting all day and the baby lost its battle for life or the woman left 8 kids in a car unsupervised and one decide to 'drive' and pulled the brake and cause a wreck with cause damage and injury.

It is those people who leave kids in extreme weather with no proper supervision who have cause grave injury and death to their children and animals, those that have no self control or ability to govern themselves in the right and wrongs of life that have led to parents with good judgment being penalized and persecuted for no good reason.

With that said, how is a police offer to know when a child is endangered or when they are not? What if a kid is in a car with a a/c and a dvd and a McD's and someone gets choked?

When did we loose our ability to control ourselves and to use common sense? When did we as a people get so 'dumb' that we gave those things away and allowed laws to treat us as errant children?

Babies, toddlers, small children and many children under 10 indeed are unreliable and it is not a good idea to leave them in a car much less in control of younger children.

Sadly, I have seen on many occasions toddlers, with food, left in locked cars while the mother goes in Blooms, the video rental and other shops. I have sat by the car and timed her arrival from the moment I parked.

I have seen a toddler eating left in a locked car for 42 minutes. 42 minutes. If that child had choked it would have died in less than 5 minutes if I couldn't break the glass and help.

Too many people have poor judgment and we all have to pay for it.

 

[The Chicken People]

Thanks for saying it well MissPrissy!

 

[fowler_chick]

i would NEVER leave my child in a car!!! i am a mother of 2 little boy's and a teen age daughter and a wife of a sheriff dept, it scares the begebers out of me on what some parents do !!!. smoking in a car whild a child is in it.....not having a car seat for a child......leaving them to run a muck in a car while a parents is in side doing some thing......HERE'S A WARNING.....If you think your going to be safe just running in to a place and locking you car doors with your clicker...you are so wrong.....theves now have a device that can scan your code in your car and can unlock it, they don't car if or not that your kids are in a car

 

[SurprisingWoman]

I am one of those annoying people that if I see an animal left in the car in the heat (even with the windows cracked) I will lean against the bumper of the car and time the person until they got back to the car. If I saw the animal in distress I wouldn't hesitate to call 911 and then break the window.

When they finally get to the car they get some basic facts of pet endangerment before they can leave, with a promise that I have memorized their car and written down their license plate and will not hesitate to call the police next time. I keep a pad in my glove box.

If I see a child it's an automatic 911 call.

Sorry, it's not safe.

 

[snowydiamonds]

It is totally against the law! I never did it and I made sure all five of my kids (now adults) went with me everywhere and we also went out to dinner at a resturant once a month to ensure we practiced our normal manners and learning from all situations encountered.

I went with a younger friend (ten years my junior) for a car ride with two stops and left my five at home with their father once, the woman being my best friend for many years, she brought her two young children and the first place she stopped at she asked if I was going in with her or waiting in the truck, (I was waiting for the second stop at the grocery store) so I went in with her, telling her and arguing with her that she couldn't leave her two in the truck alone, it was against the law. She left them in the truck, we came right back out (and I should have stayed with them but I was trying to teach this younger woman to be a better mother) and her daughter who was the eldest had gotten into a jar of lotion/cream. She yanked the jar out of her daughter's hands and threw it back into the windshield. I told her she shouldn't have left them alone, again and we went to the store. Inside the store I told her she'd have to watch the two kids carefully and at the checkstand make sure she checked their hands and pockets. She didn't and of course the two (just barely out of toddler stage) had stolen and in the truck pulled it out in front of us, I insisted she bring them back inside and make them return the candy and apologize or she'd be raising kleptomaniacs. She threw the candy into the windshield on the dash just like the lotion/cream and drove home. I lived across the street, was just opening the front door and the phone was ringing. My eldest/son answered it politely and gave the phone to me. Here she was, on the phone, angrily demanding to know why I turned her in??? I told hr I hadn't had time to make a phone call, I hadn't had time to barely open the door and hadn't taken my shoes off and she was already on the phone! I asked what happened and she said soomeone/ME? turned her in for slapping her child as she left her alone in the truck. I said she turned herself in, where we parked at the first stop, the building is a sheet of windows from the ground floor up and on the second floor was Child Services...she never did become a good mother in raising children (she had six eventually) properly and died at a very young age from cancer. Her six children struggle daily, two of the three boys in and out of jail, of the three girls, the middle one was recently in a juvenile facility.

You need to keep your precious children beside you and make every instance a learning experience in proper ettiquette and with love and tenderness, happiness and sunshine...they will not be little, long, and you can never win back this short time with them, you want the best for them to succeed in their lives and carry on the loving relationship and learning with their own kids.

 

[chixie]

Quote:
my parents used to leave us in the car back in the 70's ... we always got in trouble when she got back cause we would sit in the stearing wheel and rock back and forth