If people backed into parking spaces would they not forget their children?

[Anonymous]

When I had kids I decided to keep my cell in the back seat. Mainly because this keeps me from glancing at my phone/keeps me tempted from texting but it would also prevent a terrible tragedy too.

[Anonymous]

I have never forgotten my child either, but that doesn't mean I assume it can't happen. Mistakes happen, and as a PP pointed out it is almost always when you are out of your routine.

[Anonymous]

This can happen to anyone; the human brain is easily overwhelmed by our fast-paced modern lives and a change in routine can lead to the perfect storm of a tragedy. One way to prevent this is to make a habit of looking at the empty backseat as you are locking the car. Every time, even when the kids aren't with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only people who are actively trying to murder their kids "forget" about them.

I've forgotten my kid before, or rather I forgot where he was. Usually, I was thinking about him the whole time, just not about his physical location.

Fortunately, all of my incidents were forgetting to pick up rather than to drop off, or driving to the wrong place (e.g. going to school to pick up during the week of spring break camp). Equally fortunately, he's now old enough to get out of a car and come find me, so if I did forget him the worst that would happen is that he'd tell everyone embarrassing stories about it.

[Anonymous]

Everyone who thinks they would never do this needs to go read the Gene Weingarten piece on this.

Also, OP, I think you are vastly overestimating the number of people who bother to look behind them while backing up in DC. Also, it would not make a difference for rear-facing carseats.

[Anonymous]

Everybody in this thread needs to stop what they are doing and read this article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

Forgetting your child in your car does NOT mean that you did it on purpose, that you are dumb, or that you don't love your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never forgotten my child either, but that doesn't mean I assume it can't happen. Mistakes happen, and as a PP pointed out it is almost always when you are out of your routine.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the pps. I'm not judging the people who this happens too but it just seems like I'm a society where I'll run back to the car in 5 minutes if I don't have my phone with me, how the f would I forget a human being?!

Most people have their phones 247. Or use them at minimum every 20-30 minutes.

Many people rarely have their child with them on a weekday morning.

Just read the article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the pps. I'm not judging the people who this happens too but it just seems like I'm a society where I'll run back to the car in 5 minutes if I don't have my phone with me, how the f would I forget a human being?!

There's research on this and it turns out it's a matter of habit. In virtually all of the cases, the parents who forgot their kids had a change of schedule. That is, a different parent took drop-off duty, or went in a different order for some reason. So, let's say that every day you drive directly to work. The one day you are supposed to drop your child off along the way, you are in a groove and forget. If you've ever turned the wrong way based on habit, it's the same thing.

I wish I could find this interesting article I read on unconscious competence. It listed some of the most newsworthy cases of parents forgetting their kids and then showed how unconscious competence was to blame. Unconscious competence is basically you've performed a skill so many times and have developed such a pattern that you don't think while doing it and just perform it unconsciously. Your brain doesn't need to devote resources to completing the task at hand, so it diverts those resources. It's why you sometimes arrive at your destination and have zero recollection of how you got there or what happened during the drive.

It went hand-in-hand with a disruption in the normal routine of the parent who forgot the kid in the car.

In one case the dad as always the morning drop off parent because the mom had a longer commute and needed to leave very early. One morning the mom was the drop off parent because her husband had to travel further for a meeting and left early. Even though it was a planned switch and not something thrust on her at the last minute, unconscious competence took over when she started her commute and the next thing she knows, she's at work. She goes on with her day and doesn't realize something is wrong until her husband calls after the day care contacted him about the missing kid.

I don't think backing in would really cause a significant change because as someone else stated, so many cars have backup cameras. I like the idea of putting something important to your day in the back seat, such as your purse or briefcase.

[Anonymous]

I recommend listening to the Atlanta Journal Constitution's podcast titled Breakdown: http://www.ajc.com/news/local/breakdown-episode-death-hot-car-mistake-murder/pKSqMHkoQobMJEK2KHmicL/ It's about a father who left his 22 month old in a car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

doodlebug wrote:Didn't the onslaught of forgotten children ramp up when carseats were turned backward for longer? Seems like that's the bigger cause...simply not being able to see the kid. I'm also not convinced all of the cases are accidents.

I remember reading this as well being the cause.

I always feel very bad but think the same thing, not always an accident.

What? You think these people killed their children on purpose? ???

[Anonymous]

I forgot my kid once, it was pretty alarming and could have been much worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a nonverbal child and have never forgotten her. Not once.

Yay for you. Don't like your subtext at all. Go read the article linked and get your head out of your butt.

[Anonymous]

Everyday I leave the metro station and go right to aftercare to pick up my son. Once in a while (like once every few months) I'm home when I leave to pick my son up. I don't do morning drop off, and his school is a left turn off the route I drive to the metro station every morning. Almost every time I do this I almost miss or miss the turn because my brain wants to go to the metro station, because that's where I'm going on that route 5 mornings a week. I can totally see how if I had to drop him off in the morning, especially when he was a baby when he was sleeping and I was more tired and more distracted, I might drive directly to the metro station and forget he was in the car. I don't feel smug that I'm a better mom then the poor people that it's happened to, I'm just grateful that it never happened to me.