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Parents Do Stupid Things

I heard on the local news station and read on the front page of the local newspaper in my town that someone left their 8 month old infant in a minivan, in the 90 degree heat, while they were at work yesterday.  This is not the first time that this has happened where I live.

What makes me fighting mad, is the investigating police officer was quoted in the paper saying '"Right now we don't know a whole lot.  A lot of people are going to be questioned. ... We hope it was just an accident."

An accident ???  How can someone just forget that their child was in the vehicle and it be an accident?  I mean didn't the parent put the child in the car to begin with?  So, how can the parent forget to take the child out?  

The news also said the it is becoming more common to happen in the summer months with reports of children from birth to 3 years old being left in a vehicle.  Why is this becoming more common?  Why is it more common in the summer months than the winter months?  My question is, should or shouldn't the parents be held responsible or 'forgetting' their child was in the vehicle?  Should it be ruled as an accident?  Or child neglect and endangerment?

Personally, I think that the parents should be held responsible for what happens to their children, especially, in a case like this.  I mean, even at 8 months old, the child couldn't very well put theirselves in a child seat and get themselves out again.  

I have two children and have never forgotten that they were in the vehicle with me (even when they were 8 months old).  I am pretty absent-minded at times and have many things on my mind while driving, but never enough to make me 'forget' my child is with me in the car.

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I agree 100% of each one of your words Mss. Actually I heard many many cases like this. A couple of years ago in the States a woman left three children under 3 on a car, on summer time for 4 hours!!! while she was in the hair-dresser!!!!. :...the kids died on the car by suffocation. Now this woman was also pregnant and it seems like the judge wanted her to give custody to her of that child! you can imagine, the controversy.  This woman said to the judge that she FORGOT her kids in there! Oh please, that's the most stupid excuse I have ever heard!. Parents who do this kind of things not only are responsible for their actions but also must be punished in my point of view...and the law must be severe with them. This is so sad, you know what bothers me the most? is that when summer time arrives in the USA they recommend the people to not live their dogs on the car while they shop...if people don't leave their dogs on the car because of this reason how in the world a person will leave her own child in there! *shaking head*

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I couldn't agree with you more LDS.  Did you also know that even if you leave your car windows down a little bit, the temperature inside your car can rise to 125 degrees within 20 minutes?  And that's when the temperature outside is in the 90's.  It just makes me fighting mad about how neglectful some parents can be with their children.  I also think social services needs to step in and also investigate the home and the family and not just the police investigating them.  

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Oh yes, definetly but I see that sometimes the law consider these kind of things like 'accidents' and to me it's not why? because the mother KNEW the kids were there, she KNEW it was more than 90 degrees outside, please!!! we need some common sense judges to see about the welfare of these kids. If I was a judge, definetly I will ask Social Services to step in and if the woman has other kids then put them in custody of other people, I know it sounds hard but it would be better to do this than the kids being dead. Because if something so important like to leave your children alone on a car with such a high temperature was not a big deal for the mother to do, can you imagine the kind of negligence that maybe this woman put through her kids at home?

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I so agree with you ladies!  It also infuriates me that we have such ineffectual laws/lawmakers/law enforcement that this type of situation is becoming more and more common with every passing year.   And not just leaving them in the car, but drowning them in the bathtub, locking them up and starving them.  It makes me sick to my stomach.

My mother asked me the other day..."What's this world coming to?"   ...  I said, "Mom.  It's coming to an END."

In my opinion, of course.

Roz
("...and in that day, the love of man shall wax cold...")

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[quote]It also infuriates me that we have such ineffectual laws/lawmakers/law enforcement that this type of situation is becoming more and more common with every passing year.[quote]

It just burns my backside about how lax the laws are when it comes to punishing parents for neglect and their irresponsibility.   >:(  I say that they should make tougher laws and make examples out these parents, that have such disregards for their children.  Instead, they feel sympathy for them because of their ignorance of neglecting their child by leaving them in a hot vehicle, drowning them in the bathtubs, etc.  

I can understand that they would feel sorry for their loss, but they should also be punished for their neglect.  It only shows to others that the laws that are made to protect children seem to not apply to the parents for committing the same crimes as a stranger.  

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Mss said:

QUOTE

I can understand that they would feel sorry for their loss, but they should also be punished for their neglect.  It only shows to others that the laws that are made to protect children seem to not apply to the parents for committing the same crimes as a stranger.

Agreed.  I do know that sometimes the laws meant to protect children are sometimes abused, and innocent people have their children taken away, etc.  But it also happens that guilty people are not punished, and have their kids given back to them in spite of neglect, abuse, and outright criminial behavior.  It's a sad and sometimes terrifying world we are living in....

Roz

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I found this on CNN.com about the growing numbers of parents leaving their children in hot cars:

36 kids die in hot cars this year

It happens with alarming frequency: A parent or day-care worker, often busy or distracted, leaves a helpless child in a vehicle with the windows rolled up, and the youngster dies in the heat.

So far this year, at least 36 children in the United States have died under similar circumstances.

In once such case last week, it was about 100 degrees in Dallas when 8-month-old Jordan Thomas was forgotten inside a day-care center's sport-utility vehicle. Inside, the temperature soared to a blistering 130 to 140 degrees.

Experts and advocacy groups say such deaths usually result from forgetfulness rather than any deliberate disregard for the child's safety.

https://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/08/26/child...s.ap/index.html

This is also in the article:  

QUOTE

According to the Web site of Fennell's group, nine states -- California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington -- make it illegal to leave a child alone in a vehicle. In California, for example, anyone caught leaving a child 7 or younger alone in a car can be fined $100.

I think that the fine should be more than a $100.  It should be like $1000 or more.  A $100 fine for getting caught leaving your child in a car, seems like chicken scratch and a slap on the wrist.  :