How in the world do parents "Forget" about their children in their vehicles?

Question

Yesterday I learned from the news that this mother 'forgot' to take her infant to day care, and she went straight to work and worked all day. An 8 hour day. She gets off of work only to find that her baby boy died from being left in the vehicle all day in the heat. The article mentions that experts say the increase of children dying in vehicles coinsides w/the practice of putting children in the back seat where they are more easily forgotten. How can 'experts' excuse a parent by saying that these particular incidences coinside with putting the child in the back seat? How is it that parents "forget" about their children? I'm a parent, and there is no way I would forget about my child. What in the world is going on with parents now a days? They leave their kids in their cars/trucks to suffocate, I just read of another mother/father that left their two toddlers to wonder an apartment complex on their own. Kids drowning all the time in their own pool. Why the increase in children's death?

Are some people not learning the value of life? Are some not learning as they grow up that we cannot be careless like this with our children? What happened to being conscientious (sp?) about what our children are doing? I just don't get why a parent would do this to their child.

momof4: What about technology? What about true consciencious parenting? We should not rely on technology to REMIND us of our children. We the parents have a duty to our children, to PROTECT them, and KNOW their where-abouts at all times! I do not agree with you one bit.

Answer 1

back when i was raising my children, you never heard of such a thing...now it seems fairly common. i can't imagine how this could even happen. i was a single parent, working two jobs and running my kids to day care. i don't care how tired or stressed i was, this just never, ever happened. people feel sorry for the parents who do this.."oh that poor parent, she or he was so over tired and stressed...it was a mistake...look at how he or she is crying..." BULL!!! there is no excuse for this. that poor child, suffocating in a car is not an easy death...along with the terror the poor little things must feel! the world is going to hell.

Answer 2

I think and this is a generalization mind you that today's parents are very stressed and working sometimes multiple jobs and just "space" out.. I'm with you and probably every other parent out there that would NEVER just forget about my children's whereabouts. I mean really it's ridiculous that you just forget where your children are? Also, wouldn't the daycare/nursery school what have you called if your child was NOT there? I find that odd as well.... I think there were several newstories about parents leaving their children and one grandparent leaving a child in a hot car in Florida she simply forgot the child was there while visiting some frineds.. The child in the car which was parked on a main street should've been visable to the pedestrians but, sadly died... This is a very, very disturbing trend among parents. I agree with you....

Answer 3

I don't see the same general trend you do. Child mortality from accidents is going down, not up (see eg. http://www.nber.org/digest/dec99/glied.html). If anything, I think today's parents, at least certainly those in my community, tend to hover over and overprotect their children far more than those in our day. I spent much of my glorious childhood playing outside with no adult supervision. No way would today's parents do that. I think the biggest difference is that today's media environment is such that if there's one horrible accident involving a child, the media plays clips of it over and over until people start having the sense that kids are dying all over the place (yes, there are a bunch of news stories. And it's true that there has been a slight increase of kids dying in hot vehicles. But 30 kids a year or so (http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2007/08/02/how_we_see_it/opinion01.txt) compared to all the kids in the us is hardly an epidemic.)

Some people are bad parents. Some people space out and make a mistake that they regret for the rest of their lives. If a parent had no sleep, doesn't usually have the baby in the car at that time of day, is operating on habit, is answering a cell phone call while she's parking the car, and has a sleeping (and silent) baby facing backwards (where the parent can't see her) in the back seat, it could happen. Glad it would never happen to you. Hope it would never happen to me. Instead of bashing people, how about lobbying for technology that would set off an alarm if there was the weight of a passenger in one of the back seats when the car was off and locked? It should be easy enough ... my car knows when somebody is on a seat without a seatbelt buckled....

Answer 4

I totally agree, I am always sleep deprived, work full time, take care of the house and I have never -and will never- forget about my baby girl in the car seat. Thre's no excuse for those parents, it is just inbelievable. The only thing I know is that those little angels are in heaven and their parents will have to live with guilt forever.

Answer 5

could be from sleep deprivation maybe or too much other things on their mind..stress..
i don't know honestly because I'm constantly keeping my eye on my 15 month old and always have because I want him to be safe all the time.
I had a big scare the other day, my mother in law was upstairs with my son..which I asked her to play downstairs with him...next thing I heard was her scream "GAVIN NOO" and a bunch of loud noises that I thought he was fallling down the stairs but it was her stomping to rush and get him before he stepped off. I ran to the stairs so fast to see her holding him at the very edge and he was smiling. I wanted to puke and my legs felt like jello for an hour after that.

Answer 6

Some of them mean to do it and know they have a better chance at not getting in trouble and the people in the world is letting them think that. I would never forget about my baby either. I think it is meant to happen sometimes (not accidents). CPS needs to pay a little more attention to some.

Answer 7

These people should never be charged with manslaughter. There crime is first degree murder. On top of that they should be buried under the jail, sterilized, and made to watch over and over again the movie A Clockwork Orange.

Answer 8

i don't understand it either. my husband had to be at work at 3 a.m. every morning when my daughter was 2 months old. i went to bed at 10 p.m., was up at midnight and 2a.m. for feedings, then i made my husband's lunch, handrolled 20 cigarrettes, made breakfast, got myself, my husband, and the baby dressed. fed the dogs and cats, walked the dogs, warmed up the car, put the baby in her carseat, rushed my husband into the car, drove my husband to work, and drove back home. in all that time, no matter how tired i was, i never forgot my daughter. there is no excuse for it. those parents should be punished. no excuse!!

Answer 9

The increase is due to ignorant people breeding.

Stupid people make bad parents, plain and simple. Everyone seems to think "I'm just as smart as everyone else" when they are not.

There is NO excuse for forgetting your child- ANYWHERE, anytime.

These people are on drugs, have mental problems or are just plain ignorant.

Answer 10

Sometimes it is negligence and sometimes it truly happends to people who are out of their routine....I feel sorry for them knowing that b/c of their actions their child died and they have to live with that guilt for the rest of their lives...