Leaving Kids in Cars
I’d be the first to say never leave your child alone in the car!!
However….
There are times when your child is in the car, it’s raining, you need to run back in your house for something. Do you always take your child back in with you? How about when you pump gas? Do you take your child out with you? Yes, if you have to go inside the store, but what about those gas stations with the walk-up window…your car is only about a yard away, the child is asleep….do you take the child out to walk a yard, toss a guy two twenties and walk back? No?
I just read a story about a woman who went to Wal-Mart to allow her children to donate change they had been collecting. Everyone has seen those buckets in front of Wal-Mart, right? Well, this woman parked in the loading zone, right next to the front door. The bucket was outside and she was no more than a yard from her car at all times, and only for a minute or two. Did the Cops go too far with this one? Let me know what you think!
Posted: March 13th, 2008 under Moms In The News.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from Laura
Time: March 13, 2008, 1:10 pm
While I don’t agree with ‘ever’ leaving a child in a car; I think the cops did overstep their authority. The simples fact is, in order to put a child at danger, the mother/father would have needed to be out of ‘visual’ contact with the car. I wouldn’t have taken my child out in the sleet either. I would have done the same thing. What, risk the child falling or me falling with the child over stepping a few feet away, within my sight?
Anyway, I do not really see how this will go any further. I can’t imagine why the courts haven’t thrown it out. CPS has already ruled she wasn’t negligent….oh the world we live in today.
It seems everyone want to control parents and their parenting; that is just wrong. Just because someone doesn’t ‘agree’ with what she did doesn’t mean what she did was illegal.
Nice post…thanks for the insight! 
Comment from April
Time: March 13, 2008, 11:46 pm
This is really going to far. I can’t believe it got as far as it did. And the thing is, she was really trying to do something nice by donating to the salvation army.
This is a great story. I wouldn’t have heard about it if I hadn’t seen it on your blog. Thanks for sharing.
Comment from Sandy
Time: March 14, 2008, 12:34 pm
I have left my child in the car while I’m pumping gas, but I pay at the pump. He has always went in to the store with me or wherever it is we are.
Comment from Jackie
Time: March 15, 2008, 3:19 am
I think this is a gray area because I think it is ok if you are pumping gas (and paying at the pump) and it didn’t sound like the mother did anything to harm her child BUT there are situations out there where the parents leave their kids in the car for long periods of time (going shopping or to lunch) etc…and putting their children in danger. I think CPS and Law Enforcement is trying to prevent those situations from occurring, even if it wasn’t intentional. You all see the world we live in.
Comment from Irene
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:17 pm
I read that the charges were dropped, and the mom will not have to go to trial. I do think the police went to far. I think if they had listened to the mom, and discussed the situation, instead of arresting her and handcuffing her in front of her kids, it could have been resolved on the spot! It’s pretty obvious the mom was not trying to neglect or endanger her child.
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