DC parents leave kids in car for wine tasting

[Anonymous]

RE: Would the kids remember the incident (of being left alone)

It's unclear (to me) how old these kids are. I've seen some reports saying they are both under two, and others saying that the boy is two and the girl is three...

Anyway, back in the 70s, when I was a young kid, my mom would leave me in the car while she ran an errand ALL the time. It was pretty common. I distinctly remember a time when I was 3, and she left me in the car to go into a store. I remember it was taking a LONG time (it seemed to me) and I started getting scared. I was worried something bad was happening to her (in my mind, I actually pictured them boiling her in a large pot over an open flame! I must have seen something on tv or something) I remember crying and eventually getting out of the car and walking into the store by myself.
If the little girl is, in fact, three years old--there is no doubt in my mind that she will remember hysterically crying in the car for an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think these people are complete and total a-holes. And completely clueless. They clearly saw nothing wrong with leaving their children unattended IN PUBLIC! So clearly their judgement is scary. That said, I really feel for those children. They must be terrified without their parents. I do think it's in the kids best interest to be reunited with their parents. How that happens and under what supervision I don't know. But I do think being away from their parents is more damaging.

+1. I feel so bad for the kids, separated from their parents. What the parents did was reckless neglect, but all the gleeful cackling here seems in poor taste because of those tiny babies who want and need their parents.

+1. The parents need to be punished and punished in the worst way. But the kids don't need to be punished. They need to be put first here. They need to be back in their home and their parents need serious supervision and counseling. I do think what they did is criminal. I can't even fathom doing what they did. And when I heard one child didn't even have shoes and socks on that put me over the edge. So I don't know what the answer is but I think those kids need to be put first.

Me too. That, and reading that one of the kids was hysterically crying when they were found.

As PP wondered--were they on drugs? Or, are they DCUM incarnate (entitled yuppie asshole parents)? Does anyone know when you are arrested if they run a toxicology screen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They may try the ASD/Aspergers-autism defense bc they will likely try anything and everything, but I'm not aware that people with ASD are into harming others. Sure they may not understand situations with other people or emotions or miss the point of the joke/conversation sometimes, but I think they do understand the big things like "don't leave a 3 yr old alone." Plus how many people with ASD would be so desperate to go to a wine tasting? The stereotype is loners, not social butterflies.

As for the "I'm from France, I don't know any better and that's what we do there" -- eh, I don't see it. His wife is from here and she ought to know. Plus looking at his LinkedIn, it looks like he got a masters in Europe in 2000 and after that all of his jobs seem to be in the U.S. in the DC area (didn't look at each and every one but just by company name) -- that means he's been in the U.S. for a decade and a half and didn't just fall off the boat yesterday.

I wish people would stop saying he did this because he is French. This is as UN-French as it gets. (I recently returned from living there).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who the hell drives 4 blocks to go to a wine tasting?

I cannot fathom even thinking of doing this. Those poor children. Imagine how scared they must have been. My toddler won't let me out of her sight.

The only thing I can think of is that in their (totally, totally screwed up) minds, they somehow thought it was better/safer for the kids to be unattended in the car in front of (?) the restaurant than in their home. I do not get it (any of it), but that's all I can come up with.

They couldn't leave one patent at home either the kids? Or switch off after an hour?

Of course they could have, and should have. What they did is totally effed up. The above is just the only explanation I can come up with for why the kids were left in the (freezing cold, UGH) car when the restaurant was 4 blocks from their home. Disordered, nonsensical and totally wrong; just trying to think of how they came to this incredibly poor decision.

The parents probably drove their kids around the block a few times to get them to fall asleep, then parked when they were asleep.

I thought exactly the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They may try the ASD/Aspergers-autism defense bc they will likely try anything and everything, but I'm not aware that people with ASD are into harming others. Sure they may not understand situations with other people or emotions or miss the point of the joke/conversation sometimes, but I think they do understand the big things like "don't leave a 3 yr old alone." Plus how many people with ASD would be so desperate to go to a wine tasting? The stereotype is loners, not social butterflies.

As for the "I'm from France, I don't know any better and that's what we do there" -- eh, I don't see it. His wife is from here and she ought to know. Plus looking at his LinkedIn, it looks like he got a masters in Europe in 2000 and after that all of his jobs seem to be in the U.S. in the DC area (didn't look at each and every one but just by company name) -- that means he's been in the U.S. for a decade and a half and didn't just fall off the boat yesterday.

I wish people would stop saying he did this because he is French. This is as UN-French as it gets. (I recently returned from living there).

I am French and already posted here pages ago we don't do this at all. Denmark and scandanavian countries do the strollers outside restaurants. In France we have babysitters or we bring our kids, in fact at happy hours they have specials for kids (grenadine, etc). So stop with the anti France talk.

Perhaps the parents are just assholes regardless of their national heritage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They may try the ASD/Aspergers-autism defense bc they will likely try anything and everything, but I'm not aware that people with ASD are into harming others. Sure they may not understand situations with other people or emotions or miss the point of the joke/conversation sometimes, but I think they do understand the big things like "don't leave a 3 yr old alone." Plus how many people with ASD would be so desperate to go to a wine tasting? The stereotype is loners, not social butterflies.

As for the "I'm from France, I don't know any better and that's what we do there" -- eh, I don't see it. His wife is from here and she ought to know. Plus looking at his LinkedIn, it looks like he got a masters in Europe in 2000 and after that all of his jobs seem to be in the U.S. in the DC area (didn't look at each and every one but just by company name) -- that means he's been in the U.S. for a decade and a half and didn't just fall off the boat yesterday.

I wish people would stop saying he did this because he is French. This is as UN-French as it gets. (I recently returned from living there).

Do you mean to say that the action was un-French or typified the UN French? Both are plausible.

[Anonymous]

Anyone who leaves their kids in a car for any left of time (5 minutes is ok) especially in the reason for this case, needs their kids taken away.

I'm sure this isn't their first time doing so. The iPhone hook up etc. is "premeditated".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:RE: Would the kids remember the incident (of being left alone)

It's unclear (to me) how old these kids are. I've seen some reports saying they are both under two, and others saying that the boy is two and the girl is three...

Anyway, back in the 70s, when I was a young kid, my mom would leave me in the car while she ran an errand ALL the time. It was pretty common. I distinctly remember a time when I was 3, and she left me in the car to go into a store. I remember it was taking a LONG time (it seemed to me) and I started getting scared. I was worried something bad was happening to her (in my mind, I actually pictured them boiling her in a large pot over an open flame! I must have seen something on tv or something) I remember crying and eventually getting out of the car and walking into the store by myself.
If the little girl is, in fact, three years old--there is no doubt in my mind that she will remember hysterically crying in the car for an hour.

Times have changed since the 70s miss. And they weren't running an errand!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RE: Would the kids remember the incident (of being left alone)

It's unclear (to me) how old these kids are. I've seen some reports saying they are both under two, and others saying that the boy is two and the girl is three...

Anyway, back in the 70s, when I was a young kid, my mom would leave me in the car while she ran an errand ALL the time. It was pretty common. I distinctly remember a time when I was 3, and she left me in the car to go into a store. I remember it was taking a LONG time (it seemed to me) and I started getting scared. I was worried something bad was happening to her (in my mind, I actually pictured them boiling her in a large pot over an open flame! I must have seen something on tv or something) I remember crying and eventually getting out of the car and walking into the store by myself.
If the little girl is, in fact, three years old--there is no doubt in my mind that she will remember hysterically crying in the car for an hour.

Times have changed since the 70s miss. And they weren't running an errand!

What?? Did you read past the first sentence of that post?

[Anonymous]

I have doubts about the parents' claim that they were really watching their kids through a smart phone left in the car and via the mom's phone. While they might have kept a phone call open (like an audio baby monitor), I thought that enabling a video call through Skype or iChat requires a high-speed broadband connection for both phones. While the restaurant may have had wifi, it is less likely that the phone in the car could have been on a public wifi network. Am I wrong?

[Anonymous]

Bad decision but no way do their kids get taken away!

[Anonymous]

I think they ,use have just called one phone from the other and then left the call open. But why didn't they come out when the child was crying?

And why am I so interested in this story?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they ,use have just called one phone from the other and then left the call open. But why didn't they come out when the child was crying?

And why am I so interested in this story?

Because it is two educated, affluent people acting like meth-heads. They could be your friends, co-workers, neighbors, or you, and they did something so reckless with their children in order to do something so trivial that you just have to know the f@%^ they were thinking. It just leaves you asking "why?" At every single point. There were so many options, and this is the one they ended up on, without either seeing how stupid it was, or even how awful it may appear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They may try the ASD/Aspergers-autism defense bc they will likely try anything and everything, but I'm not aware that people with ASD are into harming others. Sure they may not understand situations with other people or emotions or miss the point of the joke/conversation sometimes, but I think they do understand the big things like "don't leave a 3 yr old alone." Plus how many people with ASD would be so desperate to go to a wine tasting? The stereotype is loners, not social butterflies.

As for the "I'm from France, I don't know any better and that's what we do there" -- eh, I don't see it. His wife is from here and she ought to know. Plus looking at his LinkedIn, it looks like he got a masters in Europe in 2000 and after that all of his jobs seem to be in the U.S. in the DC area (didn't look at each and every one but just by company name) -- that means he's been in the U.S. for a decade and a half and didn't just fall off the boat yesterday.

I wish people would stop saying he did this because he is French. This is as UN-French as it gets. (I recently returned from living there).

I am French and already posted here pages ago we don't do this at all. Denmark and scandanavian countries do the strollers outside restaurants. In France we have babysitters or we bring our kids, in fact at happy hours they have specials for kids (grenadine, etc). So stop with the anti France talk.

Perhaps the parents are just assholes regardless of their national heritage.

Sorry PP! I just returned from France and loved the lifestyle. We found it much more family-friendly/family-focused than the U.S.! The French know how to live.

[Anonymous]

Just watched the fleeing video. Doesn't seem odd that they had to run and catch a cab to get home? I would have assumed that they could have at least called someone they knew (family, friends, etc.) to come and get them. If I was their lawyer, I'd have arranged for a car to avoid the spectacle.

I think this case is so interesting because it is just so hard to comprehend that two educated, high-income adults would think that leaving two kids in a parked car for an hour was okay. I definitely wouldn't want my kids in the DC foster care system for even a day, but these parents are truly guilty of something -- child endangerment, neglect, I don't know what. I have to imagine that they have made other poor decisions along the way. But you don't need a license or any training to become a parent.