Anonymous wrote:

WTF. You are scared about who will pick up the kids? They are at school, at a safe place, not left to care for themselves.

PP here. You're kind of a bitch, but now that I'm not on my phone I will elaborate. If I am unconscious at a hospital somewhere, or dead, how will anyone know I even have kids that need to be taken care of? I have no family in the area and my husband is on planes or otherwise unreachable (in court, conducting depositions) a LOT. Can anyone tell me what would happen? Schools can't keep kids indefinitely.

They also can't just turn kids out onto the street. They would try all numbers listed for you, for DH, for anyone else authorized to pick up, for emergency contacts. If they could not find anyone at all, at some point they would have to call social services and arrange for emergency care until DH is located. I think most schools would try hard to avoid that and wait as long as possible.
If it helps you sleep, you could make sure to designate a trusted local friend or 2 as being authorized to pick up your children and also list them as emergency contacts. Also make sure to keep the contact phone numbers for you and DH up to date and includes back-up numbers (ie, call my secretary if it's an emergency and I'm not picking up, because she'll be able to track me down).

Anonymous wrote:

WTF. You are scared about who will pick up the kids? They are at school, at a safe place, not left to care for themselves.

PP here. You're kind of a bitch, but now that I'm not on my phone I will elaborate. If I am unconscious at a hospital somewhere, or dead, how will anyone know I even have kids that need to be taken care of? I have no family in the area and my husband is on planes or otherwise unreachable (in court, conducting depositions) a LOT. Can anyone tell me what would happen? Schools can't keep kids indefinitely.

I am the kind of a bitch poster, and the children would go to the police station. Once again, in safe hands lady. Geez, bigger things to worry about. Your children would not starve, be dehydrated, left to take care of themselves, soil themselves, etc.

WTF. You are scared about who will pick up the kids? They are at school, at a safe place, not left to care for themselves.

PP here. You're kind of a bitch, but now that I'm not on my phone I will elaborate. If I am unconscious at a hospital somewhere, or dead, how will anyone know I even have kids that need to be taken care of? I have no family in the area and my husband is on planes or otherwise unreachable (in court, conducting depositions) a LOT. Can anyone tell me what would happen? Schools can't keep kids indefinitely.

This was one of many reasons for not sending our DD to home daycare.

Anonymous wrote:This happened to one of my daughter's friends. She was a little older than the girl in the article when her mom had a heart attack and died. Father came home that evening, though.

My irrational fear is that I will be hit by a car while my kids are at school and my husband is on a business trip. Then who will pick up my kids? And how will anyone find out what happened to me?

WTF. You are scared about who will pick up the kids? They are at school, at a safe place, not left to care for themselves.

Anonymous wrote:OP, It's bad form to just post a link without any commentary on your part. I could just go to the Washington Post and comment directly on the article. Give us an original thought besides "poor little girl" that we can react to.

Yes, of course it's sad but I'm not going to read it. Thanks for the summary 17:09.

"poor little girl" was the only thing I had to comment on this. Also, if you mouse over the link, you pretty much see a summary to the story... ""new zealand girl 3 survives for 2 days on milk and lasagna after mother dies in their home"

This happened to one of my daughter's friends. She was a little older than the girl in the article when her mom had a heart attack and died. Father came home that evening, though.

My irrational fear is that I will be hit by a car while my kids are at school and my husband is on a business trip. Then who will pick up my kids? And how will anyone find out what happened to me?

Oh God, this is one of my biggest fears. DH travels quite a bit for work, and I worry about if I have a brain aneurysm or something that takes me suddenly, she's just in her crib or something, without food or diapers, until my DH gets concerned enough to come home or send someone over to check. How awful.

OP, It's bad form to just post a link without any commentary on your part. I could just go to the Washington Post and comment directly on the article. Give us an original thought besides "poor little girl" that we can react to.

Yes, of course it's sad but I'm not going to read it. Thanks for the summary 17:09.

There's nothing irrational abt it. DH travels for work and he checks on me 2x a day every single day!

Anonymous wrote:Okay someone please tell us what this is about. Links to truly upsetting content are a bit sadistic...

this one is sad, but not crazy upsetting - basically the little girls mother died at home, and the girl was home alone with her for a few days.

Okay someone please tell us what this is about. Links to truly upsetting content are a bit sadistic...

^^^^ mine too! yikes! Guess it's not so irrational after all...

yikes, why did I read this...this is one of my irrational fears!