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Am I in the wrong here?
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Anonymous
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I just ran out to get a newspaper with my son. The newspaper box is in front of Starbucks. I parked in a space in front of Starbucks, but about 5 parking spaces away from the newspaper box. I left my son in the car in his carseat while I went to get the newspaper from the box. I was out of the car for literally less than a minute, probably closer to 30 seconds. In the time it took me to walk to the newspaper box, get a paper, and walk back, an older man had called 911 on his cell phone to report me for leaving my son in the car. I was out of the car for such a short time that he had to have been standing there when I first parked and got out, so if he were so concerned, he could have said something to me as I was walking to the newspaper box. I heard him say, "Well, she's getting back in the car now," and then he continued to stand there giving me a dirty look as I drove away.
I was completely stunned. Should I really have gotten the Snap and Go out of my trunk, put the car seat in it, and wheeled the stroller to the newspaper box with me? It probably would have taken me longer to get the stroller out of the trunk and unfold it (while my son waited in the car alone) than it did for me to get the newspaper. |
Anonymous
| oh that's horrible! I am sorry u had to deal with that -- all i can say is that the man probably thought you were leaving the kid in the car for more than a few moments, so he called 911. I am guilty of doing that to someone who left their dog in their car one time b/c I thought she was going to be gone a long time. |
cuzimawesome
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Member Offline
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You were fine. That guy was an asshole.
But just curious... how did you know he was calling 911? Maybe he was calling his wife? Anyway, I would've told him to fuck off. |
Anonymous
OP here. You're right. I don't know who he was calling. I assumed 911 based on the fact that he hung up as soon as I got back in my car. The thing that killed me was that he continued to stand there and glare at me even after he saw that I was only out of the car for less than a minute. I should have told him to fuck off, but I was too stunned. |
Anonymous
| I might have carried the baby in the seat with me. It's hard to say exactly how far would be the cutoff for that. Then again, he totally overreacted. |
Anonymous
| Never a shortage of people who think they know better than you. |
Anonymous
| I was crazy enough that when DD was in the infant seat I did take it out for every little thing, walking just a few steps away, even if she was sleeping and I woke her! And I probably would have taken her out in the bucket in your situation. However, I wouldn't dream of calling 911 if I saw someone else do that. I probably would stand nearby and watch just to make sure you weren't going far or going into starbucks though. In the guy's defense, he may have thought that was what you were doing. Or who knows, maybe he is a paramedic who has seen cases of kids left in cars accidentally and wasa afraid that was what was happening. Still, it sounds like he overreacted. |
Anonymous
| On the one hand, I like that we live in a world where people care enough about each other to notice and try to prevent these types of deaths (you hear every summer about it happening). On the other, dude could have at least waited to see what you did or kindly asked you how long you'd be gone. A simple question to you would have saved everyone this hassle. Like our 911 operators have nothing to do but this??? |
Anonymous
| OP, it's a fine line that people have to make a call on. Butting-in or doing nothing. It appears that the guy may have overreacted. But, we don't have his perspective. I am glad the public message is keeping people alert to the dangers, though. |
Anonymous
| Clearly that was some busy-body who doesn't have any children! |
Anonymous
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I think you should have taken your DC out, though that guy absolutely overreacted. Five parking spaces is practically a block away and your child was out of your sight/hearing even if only for a minute....
At least you did not double park right next to the newspaper bin with your flashers on, blocking traffic, like so many others do. |
Anonymous
I should be clear. This is a suburban Starbucks in a parking lot, so we're talking about 5 car widths, not 5 car lengths. It was nowhere close to the length of a block. |
Anonymous
| I would do what you did. That being said, there was just another story in the news about a local child being left in a car (all day) and dying, so maybe it was on the guy's mind. |
Anonymous
| I think what you did was fine BUT, its not something I would do. I'd take the carrier with me but I'm paranoid and don't trust people. I think its great someone is concerned but for 1 minute when he could see you in eye sight is a bit extreme. |
Anonymous
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While it's good that some people actually pay attention and care about others - he definitely overreacted and I don't think you were in the wrong.
But do keep in mind that the car can heat up very fast, even if it does not seem that hot outside. It may not reach dangerous levels in that short amount of time but it gets uncomfortable very fast. And even if it is 80 degrees outside, it only takes 10-20 minutes to reach dangerous levels inside the car. Animation/simulation here: http://ggweather.com/heat/heating-small.wmv More info: http://www.weather.gov/om/heat/index.shtml |