Anonymous wrote:I'd tell the center. I have two kids two years apart and I have never, ever left them in the car alone outside of my immediate sight. Either of them. Even in my own driveway. You never know when you might get distracted. It's not safe and it's not a reasonable risk to take.

I expect my kids to be resilient and I'm not a helicopter mom. But I've read too many stories of kids being forgotten in a car to stand by while this happens.

Flame away. I'd rather say something than hear about a tragedy later.

So when you arrived home from the grocery store, assuming you had no garage, you unstrapped the kids first and took them inside the house. You then had to go back outside to the car to get the groceries and carry them back into the house. Then back out to get more groceries to carry inside.

What were your kids doing while you were running back and forth getting groceries from the car?

I'd tell the center. I have two kids two years apart and I have never, ever left them in the car alone outside of my immediate sight. Either of them. Even in my own driveway. You never know when you might get distracted. It's not safe and it's not a reasonable risk to take.

I expect my kids to be resilient and I'm not a helicopter mom. But I've read too many stories of kids being forgotten in a car to stand by while this happens.

Flame away. I'd rather say something than hear about a tragedy later.

I'd ask the school to post a sign or reminder. Is it preschool? Maybe ask if they can coordinate curb drop off or pick up. Makes everything much easier. If it's daycare, I'm not clear whether or why mom would come during nap.

Anonymous wrote:Title says it all- there's a mom who has a napping baby in the car while she picks up her kid from daycare. She has to enter the building, go around the corner, sign out the kid, and get back to the car. Car is running. There isn't normally space right out front-but it's not a far walk. I timed it-child is unaccompanied in the car for about two minutes. Say something? Or MYOB.

Perhaps you only have one child. Although the car running is a bit much. The other day I received a very disapproving look from a mom who just happened to be pregnant with two small children. She pulled both of her kids out of the car and lugged them into the school. We are 2 months in to the school year, surely she has seen me bringing my 2 year old for pickup and for drop off. Please note, I am the only one that is available to drop my son off as I'm a transplant to the area. Anywho,I ran my older son to the school door where the teacher was waiting. I gave him a kiss and explained to him that I couldn't walk him in today. Meanwhile my car is less than a few feet away and I'm only st the door. My reason for doing this was because my 2 year old has pneumonia and I didn't want to take him out of the car in the cold rain. ( I am not in D.C.) And although I could've used the carpool line I didn't want to make the teacher have to come out in the rain to retrieve my son. My 2 yr old started crying of course. The look of disapproval the mom gave me hurt me to my core. She was judging my parenting not knowing the totality of the circumstances. Now I haven't taken the time to read through all of these pages but OP, I suggest you offer the mom some grace. You have no idea what's really going on. If it was Summer or if there were other risky circumstances involved I could understand, but from your original post that does not seem to be the case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Title says it all- there's a mom who has a napping baby in the car while she picks up her kid from daycare. She has to enter the building, go around the corner, sign out the kid, and get back to the car. Car is running. There isn't normally space right out front-but it's not a far walk. I timed it-child is unaccompanied in the car for about two minutes. Say something? Or MYOB.

Since you have the time to time her while she's away from the car, Why don't you ask her if she'd like for you to stay at the car and watch her sleeping baby while she runs in to grab her kid? That would probably be the best way to help out a fellow parent who appears to be juggling conpeting schedules for her kids.

OP, you could learn a lot from this poster and 00:27, who both came at this situation from a compassionate, helpful angle.

Too bad you are too self-absorbed to listen to them.

Are you really suggesting that I coordinate my daily schedule with this women so I can stand by her car for two extra minutes every day?

You're missing the point. You immediately think about how you can get this woman in trouble (timing her? Really?). A good person, like the PPs, would ask first how they can help this woman. Shame on you.

Yes, that is how I viewed OPs actions here too. Also, I think she was hoping to get responses like "call the cops" from her OP.

Anonymous wrote:I would never do this...and I consider myself to be the lazy parent. Sorry, but that little bundle in the car seat is too precious to take any sort of risk. It's been a while since I was in this situation (kids are older now), but I do remember the inconvenience of taking the seat out of the car with sleeping baby to pick up DS. I would report this to the day care.

Maybe the mom should find a day care that has a carpool...that way there is no issue.

So exactly zero risk is now the standard of parenting? You better not drive your child anywhere--there is a serious risk that s/he will be injured in a car accident!

Yeah, still hate OP. Hopefully she didn't ruin anyone's life and if there is a God, she got some comeuppance for her nosiness

Y'all are probably the same bitches who can't stand to see a kid play in the park by him/herself.

MYOB.

I would never do this...and I consider myself to be the lazy parent. Sorry, but that little bundle in the car seat is too precious to take any sort of risk. It's been a while since I was in this situation (kids are older now), but I do remember the inconvenience of taking the seat out of the car with sleeping baby to pick up DS. I would report this to the day care.

Maybe the mom should find a day care that has a carpool...that way there is no issue.

Anonymous wrote:Tell the daycare.

Perhaps they can talk to her about it.

Do not MYOB because you are in a sense, now a mandated reporter.

If someone carjacked her vehicle thus kidnapping her baby, imagine the guilt that would ensue.

Yes daycare should handle this. My dc's daycare would send emails about this sort of thing as reminders and probably to cya.

Anonymous wrote:In MD, a child should be 8 years old to be left unaccompanied in a car. Someone else might know the law for DC and VA; I don't. (Googleable, though.)

That said, OP, since you see the child is not in danger, why would you even consider reporting the mother? Our unattended child laws typically are vague or overbroad, resulting in foolish, misguided enforcement.

A call about this automatically gets the police and CPS called in to interfere with the mother's parental rights. CPS is a frighteningly powerful agency which can cause tremendous trouble and heartache for the entire family for months and years afterward.

Moreover, the amount of trauma you could put a child in (by getting her taken unnecessarily into the foster care system) is far, far worse than checking on her casually with a dose of common sense.

If she's fine, leave well enough alone, or at most speak to mom of your fears, although at that point it's NOYB. Just know that CPS is not going to help in a benign situation like this, only harm. The cops? Same-same. I vote MYOB if you can't be helpful.

If the extent of our collective concern about kids in cars is whether to become a phone informant or a social media shamer, let's just... not. Sharing isn't caring unless there's a bona fide problem. This doesn't appear to be one.

you bumped to post this? let this thread die!