Am I in the wrong here?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Wow, what a brouhaha I created. To address the disbelief regarding my stroller comment, I can say honestly that had I taken my son out of the car I would have probably put the carseat in the Snap & Go. He weighs 18 lbs and his carseat weighs at least 15 lbs, and it's just really heavy and cumbersome for me. I usually use the Snap and Go to get him from the house to the car. If that makes me lazy, so be it. I definitely would not have taken him out of the carseat for such a quick errand because he hates the process of being strapped in, so it would have been much easier to get out the Snap and Go.

So I've thought about this a lot since I originally posted, really wondering if what I did was unsafe. I still don't think my son was ever in any danger. I really was out of the car for less than a minute. The temperature was no hotter when I got back in the car than when I got out. It was actually not all that warm Sunday morning when this happened. There's no way in hell I would have forgotten that he was in there. But all that said, I probably won't do it again, if for no other reason than I don't want somebody calling CPS on me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You son is 9. That's a bit different from leaving an infant.

If you park illegally in front of the library , get out, drop off books in the slot then it's safer to leave an infant than a mobile child who could get out of a carseat or vehicle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ironic thing is that your habit of NOT leaving your child in the car while you left briefly (for less than a minute) to return something through the outdoor drop off or to mail a letter or whatever, probably put your child MORE in danger of being accidentally locked in the car.

I routinely left my children in the car (within eyesight, as in legal in the state of MD) and because I did it routinely, I always had a mental checklist, number one was "Are my keys in my hand?" before slamming ANY door, EVER. (I did this even when putting a child into a car seat and then closing the door of the backseat.)

This is an excellent habit for everyone to get into, and would solve all cases of accidentally locking a child into a car.

As for how can any errand be "worth risking" -- well many of us believe that if you take proper precuations including developing SENSIBLE habits and routines, any risk is extremely low.

Read the Weingarten article. Almost all of the "forgotten" children who broiled to death in their parents' cars were children of parents who relied on sensible habits and routines. The comfort of the routine is part of how things can go so terribly wrong with a single, benign shock to the system.

No, I did read the Weingarten article. Almost all of the "forgotten" children were forgotten because theeir parents were driving to work and were NOT the usual ones to drop the child off at daycare. So they did NOT have the habits to remember to look for the infant before locking the car and going in to work.

One good thing to do is, when you put the infant in the car seat in the back seat, ALWAYS put your briefcase or purse there, too. ALWAYS.

None of this really applies to the person who is home with their child for the day (say it is a weekend) and is going out to return the library books, and leaves their child strapped safely in the car, taking their keys with them, car with windows down, and walks four feet away to drop off the books, then return to the car. Really. You really think aliens are going to kidnap you in that brief period of time, leaving your infant to die of heatstroke?

Reading comprehension FAIL. The parents Weingarten discussed were all the ones who usually dropped the child off at day care, but on days when something unusual had happened, like someone arrived too early and the daycare was closed so they went to the donut shop but, remembering that they had already been to the daycare, forgot that they hadn't already dropped off dc. I cannot believe anyone could have read that article and forgot the swiss cheese analogy - if you line up enough slices of swiss cheese (ie build a routine), the holes will be covered, but if something moves, then the holes might align and something can slip through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wow, what a brouhaha I created. To address the disbelief regarding my stroller comment, I can say honestly that had I taken my son out of the car I would have probably put the carseat in the Snap & Go. He weighs 18 lbs and his carseat weighs at least 15 lbs, and it's just really heavy and cumbersome for me. I usually use the Snap and Go to get him from the house to the car. If that makes me lazy, so be it. I definitely would not have taken him out of the carseat for such a quick errand because he hates the process of being strapped in, so it would have been much easier to get out the Snap and Go.

So I've thought about this a lot since I originally posted, really wondering if what I did was unsafe. I still don't think my son was ever in any danger. I really was out of the car for less than a minute. The temperature was no hotter when I got back in the car than when I got out. It was actually not all that warm Sunday morning when this happened. There's no way in hell I would have forgotten that he was in there. But all that said, I probably won't do it again, if for no other reason than I don't want somebody calling CPS on me.

Ha! Just wait until he's toddler and the novelty of walking has worn off and wants to be carried everywhere. Start lifting weights now!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wow, what a brouhaha I created. To address the disbelief regarding my stroller comment, I can say honestly that had I taken my son out of the car I would have probably put the carseat in the Snap & Go. He weighs 18 lbs and his carseat weighs at least 15 lbs, and it's just really heavy and cumbersome for me. I usually use the Snap and Go to get him from the house to the car. If that makes me lazy, so be it. I definitely would not have taken him out of the carseat for such a quick errand because he hates the process of being strapped in, so it would have been much easier to get out the Snap and Go.

So I've thought about this a lot since I originally posted, really wondering if what I did was unsafe. I still don't think my son was ever in any danger. I really was out of the car for less than a minute. The temperature was no hotter when I got back in the car than when I got out. It was actually not all that warm Sunday morning when this happened. There's no way in hell I would have forgotten that he was in there. But all that said, I probably won't do it again, if for no other reason than I don't want somebody calling CPS on me.

Ha! Just wait until he's toddler and the novelty of walking has worn off and wants to be carried everywhere. Start lifting weights now!

I think it's a lot easier to carry a 30 lb toddler on my hip than it was to carry a 15 lb baby in the infant bucket. Those things are not ergonomic!

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bump

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Wow, what a brouhaha I created. To address the disbelief regarding my stroller comment, I can say honestly that had I taken my son out of the car I would have probably put the carseat in the Snap & Go. He weighs 18 lbs and his carseat weighs at least 15 lbs, and it's just really heavy and cumbersome for me. I usually use the Snap and Go to get him from the house to the car. If that makes me lazy, so be it. I definitely would not have taken him out of the carseat for such a quick errand because he hates the process of being strapped in, so it would have been much easier to get out the Snap and Go.

So I've thought about this a lot since I originally posted, really wondering if what I did was unsafe. I still don't think my son was ever in any danger. I really was out of the car for less than a minute. The temperature was no hotter when I got back in the car than when I got out. It was actually not all that warm Sunday morning when this happened. There's no way in hell I would have forgotten that he was in there. But all that said, I probably won't do it again, if for no other reason than I don't want somebody calling CPS on me.

The problem I had was that you asked for an opinion that you didn't want to hear. You wanted everyone to say "its ok". You were angry at the man, but he likely saw the child and had no idea where the mom was, or just saw you walk away but didn't know you were literally just getting a paper from the stand. So in my mind, he did the right thing and you should not be angry, even if he gave you a dirty look.

Also, you made a big deal about how you would have to get the stroller out to put tha baby seat in, etc., but we all know that you can just carry an infant car seat. After all you were just going a few car widths, so why would it be so hard to carry it? And infant car seats don't weigh 15 pounds. They weigh under 10 because they are meant to be carried and lifted in and out of cars.

It's all in the tone. If you weren't upset that the man called 911 when he saw an infant alone in a car, and instead just spoke to the man and thanked him for his concern but told him you were in sight of the car at all times, my reaction and the reaction of others might be different.

[Anonymous]

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