Ok so the security guard is a red herring. Take the security guard out of the equation and assume he can’t stop a thing. He can’t stop a carjacking but he also can’t stop a car/pedestrian accident or mass shooting etc. |
One might ask why he is even there then if he is pointless. |
Bootstraps and walking to school 3 miles uphill both ways in the snow. Why do you want it to suck for your kids too just because you had to do it? It makes the kids more anxious to have to overparent like this. They learn they can’t be trusted. |
Cool, cool. Guess you don’t have to deal with leaving a kid in a car bc you never have to take your kids everywhere. So not sure what your issue is here? You have no experience. Also of course you knew i was gojng to say that because kids acting inappropriately usually have a reason why theh act that way. But you knew that, supposedly. |
No matter what you think, it is illegal. Unless you want to risk a CPS investigation, take your kids inside with you. |
Except in VA where OP lives it is not illegal (you can leave kids over age 4 in a car alone in VA). So this security guard was just being a nosy ahole and OP did nothing wrong. The end. |
Btw this is legal in many states. In California and Pennsylvania you can leave a child over age 6 alone in a car. In VA it's age 4. In Texas and Hawaii you can actually leave even younger kids in the car as long as you are not gone for more than 5 minutes. Some states allow it if there is an older child in the car.
So the blanket reprobation OP is receiving from many of you on this thread is no consistent with the legal landscape or social norms across the country. Ok if OP were in maryland she'd be violating the law (by a few months!). In WA state you can't leave kids in cars alone until age 12 (wow). But obviously in a lot of places in the US it is legal and acceptable to leave a 7 yr old in a car. So it's weird that some of you are acting like this is a horribly negligent behavior when it's pretty much in line with how much of the country thinks about child safety and the maturity level needed to leave a kid in a car alone. |
Only 20 states have laws against leaving kids alone in cars and in even many of those states a 7 year old is above the age where it is allowed: https://www.kidsandcars.org/laws/unattended-children-in-vehicle I will note (I am an attorney who has worked on child abuse and neglect cases) that you could still violate the law if you left a kid alone in a car in a way that put them in obvious danger. But leaving the car running is actually unlikely to be viewed as neglect especially since in this case it was obviously done to keep the kid from getting too hot. I think it would have to be something like leaving the child for a long period of time or in a location where a car would be very likely to be hit (like the shoulder of a highway). I know a judge would also look critically at the reason the child was left. Running into a pharmacy for a few minutes would be seen by most as okay whereas leaving a kid outside a casino to go gamble would not. There are judgment calls here but unless you were in a state with a blanket ban on leaving a 7 yr old in a car (very few states) OP would be legally fine. Y'all need to chill. |
OP - last time. I won’t be leaving my kid in the car again. This was a safe neighborhood, not some crime ridden CVS in the hoods?!? of Nothern Virginia. There is a reason the security guard was there that doesn’t really have anything to do with crime. I’m not going to say why because I feel like that would give away more information than I am comfortable with.
People saying that I don’t parent are ridiculous, or that I am lazy. No, I think my son is responsible enough to be left in the car. He is risk averse and not the type of kid to try and drive the car; we’ve spoken about that. There was obviously a security guard there. Last night I had to have another conversation with him where I told him he did nothing wrong and I was wrong (I still don’t think what I did was wrong but obviously we live in a society so). The security guard scared him, because he questioned him and because he was correcting me. I mean, I just wonder about raising a kid in a society where he can’t be left alone for a second and we have to constantly be afraid of carjackers and kidnappers in the hood that is Northern Virginia. When I was his age, I could go outside and play with my friends with no adult supervision. Our society is so anti-family and so wrapped up in fear. Anyway whatever. I’ve been chastised. I’ll wait until he is 13? before I leave him alone again. The mom shamers have been vindicated. |
Probably just to be on the lookout for unusual activity and call the police as needed. It may possibly be a deterrent. But in all likelihood isn’t going to stop someone hellbent on committing a crime. |
It would be illegal in Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, Utah, or Washington. Everywhere else it would be legal. |
Illegal? A 7 year old? Well by now I should have gotten life sentence. |
I was mimicking how asinine your “I had 3 kids so I did my part and I did it better than you” spiel was. You’re not a better parent just because you took your tantruming kid into a store. You assessed the risks and made a choice that was right for you. But there were still small risks of taking them into the store. Just like there are small risks of leaving a kid in the car. One isn’t necessarily morally superior than the other. |
Point is, I don’t make the rules. I follow them and don’t ask for exceptions. I personally know a mom who had CPS visit her after leaving her kid in a car to pick up a pizza. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. |
Ok. I didn’t “assess the risks” i had a toddler and it was against the rules to leave kids in the car. I didn’t decide the rule didn’t apply to me because I’m an uppity princess. You acting like people don’t have more kids because of leaving kids in cars rules is what is asinine. |