In my opinion it was her own fault for leaving the child in the car with the engine running. I understand that she wanted to keep the child asleep, but is it really worth it, considering what happened? I would never do that and we live on a residential street in Cornwall. She lives in London. I only have the one child (she has 3) and I know how much you want them to stay asleep and not be woken up, but I honestly can’t believe that anyone would leave a 6 month old baby in an unattended car with the engine running. Maybe she was just being naive, but I’m such a worrier that I would never have entertained the idea in the first place.
Luckily it all turned out OK. I imagine the thief would have had a bit of a shock!
What do you think? Would you have done the same thing?
My initial fear about leaving a child in a car would be more directed to fire, rather than theft. I think most theives would be horrified at the thought of stealing a baby aswell…...thankfully everything was fine in the end.
If she had left the car running in a petrol station and gone in to pay (ie quite a distance) I would say that she was hugely irresponsible, but outside her house? Mmm, i wouldn’t do it myself but if it was as she said in that her and her husband were going back and forth I would say that it is a lesson well learned.
I think that the thief was horrified! I hesitated to post about this initially as it’s very easy to judge someone elses’s actions and I’m sure that I’ve done stuff as a parent that other people would think that they would never do. I was just interested to see what people thought about the whole situation really. As you say, ummsalam, a lesson learnt!
My initial reaction would be why on earth would you do that, what a sily thing to do??!! But then, I remember when Lewis was about a year old and we lived in town. I had him all ready in the car to go, started the car, remembered I hadn’t locked the back door, ran round the back (wasn’t far, we had a teeny house!), locked the door, ran back, only to find a policeman standing beside my car and gave me a huge lecture about what could happen by leaving my baby unattended. I must have been a minute or 2 at the very most. Needless to say I never did it again. It was just a case of not thinking :(
We never used to have a driveway and I would often put the children in the car (providing I had it parked directly outside my front door) and run in and out (as the alternative was have them running into the road while I was busy packing the car). However, IF I was to go somewhere other than just inside the front door (ie if I had left something in the back room) I would have either taken the children out but more than likely would have locked them in the car. But this would only to be to dash to another room downstairs - not upstairs or anything that would take longer than a few extra seconds. I haven’t actually read the article so not sure on the details - but I would never have left them in the car in a petrol station - or down the road from our front door - locked or otherwise!! And most certainly NOT with the engine running! Not even without the children in the car! But then I used to live in a place where you were at risk of being purposely bumped into from the back only to get out the car to see what had happened for someone to knock you out the way and get in the car - hence why if I ever have a prang in my car i will just clock the reg number and never get out the car. It was a regular thing in my old area.
i have left rye in the car but never with the engine running,thats a bit daft in my opinion. However i did learn recently that its illegal to lesve children unattended in cars.
In my opinion it was her own fault for leaving the child in the car with the engine running.
I realise the article was from the mother’s point of view but when you read the text both parents were present and presumably both in agreement about doing what they did. So if there is blame on the parents here (not saying there is, but if there is) it would be on both of them not just her.
*Steps off soapbox* Sorry, just my inner feminist getting wound up by the (completely unintentially I’m sure) implication that where things go wrong in relation to children it is automatically the woman’s/mother’s fault
We had this debate not so long ago and it got very heated with many recriminations….Personally in my area, I would rather leave a sleeping baby in the car (locked without engine running) where I can see and hear them from the front room than leave them alone upstairs where I can’t hear them so well. Having said that at 6 months I wouldn’t let a baby wake up without me being there, so I would sit in the car with a babe that young. I would, however, definitely go and pay at a petrol station - even if my child was awake - far safer in my opinion (with a toddler) than traipsing them across a busy forecourt.
Daft thing to do maybe, dangerous - up to personal opinion, but reason for her to be chastised - hmmmm i dont think so (im not suggesting anyone on here is saying it is, more that the public at large are) we all do things we later regret, we all have made dodgy decisions most of them come out alright. poor woman what a fright she must of had xx
In my opinion it was her own fault for leaving the child in the car with the engine running.
I realise the article was from the mother’s point of view but when you read the text both parents were present and presumably both in agreement about doing what they did. So if there is blame on the parents here (not saying there is, but if there is) it would be on both of them not just her.
*Steps off soapbox* Sorry, just my inner feminist getting wound up by the (completely unintentially I’m sure) implication that where things go wrong in relation to children it is automatically the woman’s/mother’s fault
Lainey
Fair point! If it had been the dad who had been interviewed for the article then I would have asked if it was his fault-as you rightly point out though, BOTH parents decided to do what they did. I don’t mind being put straight!
I fully understand the leaving the child in the car bit. I usually leave Amber until last as it’s unsafe to put her in the house and carry on emptying boot etc as she’d crawl out into the street. I also have left all 3 (at various times over the years) sleeping on the drive in a locked car that I can see directly into. It’s the running engine bit I don’t understand. That bit seems insane. Saying that, I’ve just had to phone a holiday company to find out when we are going away as I deleted the email, and a credit card company to get my card unlocked as I put the wrong pin in 3 times today, so I know how having no sleep and 3 kids causes poor decision making!
I have to say Ive left my little one asleep in the car before but on the drive with the car locked and the windows ope slightly (think dog ) Not sure why you’d leave the car running though, thats open advertising for it being knicked. I bet she had the fright of her life though :(
I do leave the kids in the car at times and are not going to change the way I do things as with 3soon to be 4 kids you can’t physically take them all out of the car at the same time, I will pay at petrol sation and leave them in it and I leave car on drive if they are sleeping and I want to do xyz. However never would I leave the car running. One because my older kids know how to make a car move so that would be dangerous , it is offering to thieves in my opinion to come and take it also I would be worried about a mechanical failure. So yes it is irresponsible in my opinion to leVe car running.
I think she left the car running because the noise will have helped the baby sleep. I know mine sleeps when we’re at the laundrette, but as soon as all the machines stop she wakes up.
I guess it depends where you live and if you can see them in the car. Probably not the best thing to do on a street in London, but maybe ok on a driveway on a cul-de-sac in a small village.
No I really do not agree sorry to come back to this late..but leaving the car running is incredibly irresponsible. I’m sorry but it is not worth the risk whereever you live, there are car theives all over the place not just in built up areas.
Besides that, what if there’s a fault and fumes are being blown into the car from the fans, or there’s an electrical problem that causes a fire?
Of course I leave rye in the van when i go to the petrol station, I’ve even left him in the van while I’ve nipped across to the chippy or popped into tesco (late at night so I can get what I want and go through self scanning till so, in and out within minutes) - solong I can always see the van. I’ve never left him sleeping in a car without me, jsut not something that occured to me to do - however sat on one’s own drive, engine off etc wouldn’t bother me, so long I could see the car.
But it running. I dont’ really care if it was a the mother or the father, or a joint decision, it was a bloody stupid thing to do.
Actually my dad always used to leave me and my sister in his van with the engine running while he ran into the shop for cigs or whatever. I thought that when the engine was running the car would be moving unless a break was on, and I was always scared the break would come off and the van would set off. I was always ready to jump into the driver’s seat and control the steering wheel. I used to have nightmares about it and once didn’t realise it was only a nightmare and I thought it had happened, until I was old enough to understand about accelerators and breaks etc.
