Stupid question, but can I leave my baby in the car for this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You never leave your baby alone in a car under any circumstances or for any period of time.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way. Your baby could be carjacked in front of the preschool. The car could mysteriously roll away. You could have a heart attack and no one would ever notice your car in the line. YOU could be kidnapped.


/S

Or you could forget the baby is in the car and leave him in there for hours….

Yes, that is very likely to happen while dropping your child off at daycare. You might just randomly decide to walk to work.

Did you know that when children die in hot cars, it's usually because the parent did not realize they child was in the car at all? The baby falls asleep, the parent forgets it's their day for daycare drop off and not their spouse's, they drive to work and get out of the car and don't realize until later the baby was in the car. Especially happens with parents who are exhausted from sleepless nights.

It does not happen because a parent makes the intentional choice to leave a baby in the backseat of a car while performing a short errand during which the car is always in sight. Literally a child has never overheated in a car because their parent decided to leave them in the car while the dropped off a sibling, grabbed a coffee, picked up takeout, or similar. Never. There is zero evidence this is a danger in this situation.

Agree with you completely; I was adding another sarcastic response to PP’s sarcastic post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're not going inside, it takes less than five minutes, and you're in sight of the car the whole time? And you could run there in under 30 seconds? Absolutely I'd leave the baby in the car.

You people are crazy. What on earth is going to happen? Even the worst case scenario about the broken key isn't actually an emergency. If you can't get the door open in five minutes, you break a window. Case closed.

Yup, and if you are good about leaving it unlocked or leaving a window open, which there is no reason not to do since you are going to be within sight of the car the whole time, you can even eliminate that worst case scenario.

I agree people are nuts about this.

[Anonymous]

I agree you can't leave the baby. I'd look for a daycare with a carpool/drop off where they meet the kid at the car

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly everyone says no, you shouldn't.
And you shouldn't. But not because there is any danger to the baby. Of course there isn't. What you want to do is perfectly reasonable and in most other times and places would be what every mother does.

However... here in 2023 in the US, it is a dangerous thing to do not for the baby, but for you. Within just a few days of doing this, you will be called into the daycare directors office and chastised. You will also become the focus of mommy gossip and glares and judgement.
There is a non-zero chance someone will report you to CPS.

So, sadly, you need to take your baby out of the car.

Yup! That’s the society we have. But unlike most of you, I’m not going to defend it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're not going inside, it takes less than five minutes, and you're in sight of the car the whole time? And you could run there in under 30 seconds? Absolutely I'd leave the baby in the car.

You people are crazy. What on earth is going to happen? Even the worst case scenario about the broken key isn't actually an emergency. If you can't get the door open in five minutes, you break a window. Case closed.

+1

[Anonymous]

I'd leave the baby in the car. Normalize doing completely normal things!

[Anonymous]

I leave my kid in the car if I am within sight for under a minute (pumping gas, dropping library books etc.). My car has a fob so I leave the car running to keep it cool in summer or warm in winter or leave all the windows down if the weather’s nice and just bring the fob with me. The car won’t drive if the fob isn’t in the car. Literally will not switch out of park, so I am not concerned about the phantom carjackers DCUM always brings up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I leave my kid in the car if I am within sight for under a minute (pumping gas, dropping library books etc.). My car has a fob so I leave the car running to keep it cool in summer or warm in winter or leave all the windows down if the weather’s nice and just bring the fob with me. The car won’t drive if the fob isn’t in the car. Literally will not switch out of park, so I am not concerned about the phantom carjackers DCUM always brings up.

Yeah, the fob makes this easy because no key to break.

Though obviously if you just don't lock the car (you're standing right there, you don't need to lock it) the whole key issue is moot. We've done this when meeting friends at a park for a picnic, and the baby fell asleep on the way. We just park right next to the picnic area, crack the windows (assuming not a hot day and car is in shade here) and then leave it unlocked. Then check on her ever 10 minutes or so and keep an ear out for a cry.

It's crazy to me that people wouldn't do this. It's safe. I feel like we're trying to make parenting so miserable and unworkable that no one does it.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't even leave my dog in the car for that short of a time, not so much because it would hurt the dog in some way but because people today feel quite entitled to intervene if someone appears to be endangering a helpless child or animal. I don't think there is any going back from this phenomenon.

[Anonymous]

I would absolutely leave my baby in the car with the windows rolled down. I have three kids, and have done variations on this many many times over the years.

I can’t help but think that the naysayers here didn’t pay attention to the fact that you’re going to walk 30 feet and be in view of the car the whole time. You really are allowed to be 30 feet away from your baby when she is safely situated in a secure environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would absolutely leave my baby in the car with the windows rolled down. I have three kids, and have done variations on this many many times over the years.

I can’t help but think that the naysayers here didn’t pay attention to the fact that you’re going to walk 30 feet and be in view of the car the whole time. You really are allowed to be 30 feet away from your baby when she is safely situated in a secure environment.

+1
I'm an overprotective worrier and still think it's ridiculous that a mom can't walk 30 feet.

[Anonymous]

Like others have said, this shouldn't be a big deal but it is for whatever reason in this country. Plan to take the baby with you for the first couple of dropoffs but then make a friend that drops their kid off at the same time as you and have them wait 30 seconds by your car while you do dropoff, this is the easiest solution.

[Anonymous]

If I'm not going inside the building? I'd leave the baby in the car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would absolutely leave my baby in the car with the windows rolled down. I have three kids, and have done variations on this many many times over the years.

I can’t help but think that the naysayers here didn’t pay attention to the fact that you’re going to walk 30 feet and be in view of the car the whole time. You really are allowed to be 30 feet away from your baby when she is safely situated in a secure environment.

This reminds me of how a friend of mine freaked out when I told her that we'd go to our neighbor's home for dinner sometimes after putting the baby down for the night, and just take the monitor with us. She was freaking out about how dangerous that was, and I'm sure a lot of people reading this are freaking out too. How could we do that???

Well we live in an apartment building, our apartment is 800 square feet, the neighbors were right next door. So the baby was as close, if not closer, to us that a lot of people are in their own homes -- we could be in her nursery in less than a minute if we needed to, and we'd keep the monitor in sight and go in and check on her every 30 minutes or so. It was much preferable than having our friends to eat in our tiny apartment while the baby was sleeping, where we'd be paranoid about waking her up.

People don't pay attention to the details that make a decision perfectly reasonable -- they want to jump to the conclusion that allows them to point a finger at a woman and call her unfit, because that's an American pastime.