The debate was sparked by my husband last week and re-ignited by my brother-in-law on the weekend. Is it okay to leave your kids in the car unattended?
It came about during a re-cap of my stay-at-home-with-a-newborn day (needless to say, the tale was brief, predictable and rather dull). On this particular day I chose to seek my husband’s sympathy by whinging about having to get our sleeping baby in and out of the car at my big boy’s child care drop-off/pick-up, potentially turning a chunk of the day into a settling nightmare. ‘Why don’t you just leave him in the car while you go in?’, my husband suggested.
My eyes widened in horror and our conversation proceeded as such:
‘Are you serious?! Leave the baby in the car?!!’
‘Yeah, why not? You’d lock it of course.’
‘But what if someone stole him?’
‘The car’s locked.’
‘What if he broke in and drove off in the car with the baby in the back? It happens you know!’
‘Who’s going to do that at a child care place?’
‘Someone…I don’t know. It just wouldn’t be right. What sort of a parent leaves their baby in a car unattended?’
‘You wouldn’t be long.’
And so it continued. On the weekend the scenario shifted to the petrol station and this time it was my brother-in-law insisting that a baby alone in a car at the petrol station was okay. My sister backed me up (under duress, perhaps…).
‘You can’t do that!’ I shrieked. ‘Someone could report you!’
My momentum was waning but I plowed on.
‘It just isn’t right. I would feel soooo guilty.’
‘No need. He’d be fine.’
‘How do you know?’
Etcetera, etcetera…
It made me wonder what other people think about the ‘kids in cars’ issue. You see, my perspective is loaded with Mother Guilt, anxiety and paranoia. My husband and brother-in-law’s opinion is, well, male. Laid-back male. What do you think?
