"This is what a feminist looks like"... Yeah Ashlee..How about "This is what nepotism looks like"?
Posted on 06/29/2006 1:07:30 PM PDT by rawhide
A 5-month-old baby died in a minivan Wednesday after the mother apparently forgot to drop the child off at day care.
The tragedy was discovered about 5:30 p.m. outside the Wonder Years 2 day care. The baby's mother stopped at the day care after work to pick up the child and was told by staff that the baby had not been dropped off. She realized then that the baby had been in her minivan all day.
"The mother had forgotten to drop off the child at day care in the morning," said Curt Kreun, owner of Wonder Years 2. "She actually came in the building to pick up the child and then realized what had happened."
The child was in a car seat in the back of the vehicle, according to Sgt. Jeff Burgess of the Grand Forks Police Department. A Wonder Years 2 staff member made the 911 call, according to Kreun.
(Excerpt) Read more at grandforks.com ...
You could also set up other kinds of systems, but you would have to ensure they could not be foiled, like the key won't turn in the ignition without doing something inconvenient, like maybe checking the car seat and pressing a keypad?
On the other thread, there is a device that can be installed in police cars for their dogs which overheat faster than humans because of the way they breathe.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1655013/posts?page=80#80
I can't get the link to code for some reason, have done it at least 100 times.
It is totally unrealistic in today's economy to feel that people should not have children until you can afford to stay home with them for the first five years. That is naive thinking. I am curious what the "basic" cost of living is for many people with small children. I am guessing in the midwest, that it runs in the range of $3,000-$4,000 a month before taxes. That is not for some fancy house, vacations or any of that. Just to have a safe place to live, transportation, groceries, pay your utility bills and health insurance. This is not always affordable for a young couple with one income.
A good plan, but spouses do die or get too sick to work or walk out on their families. Circumstances change, and not always for the better.
Which is why it's not a good plan. Cell phones can be forgotten, lost, broken, out of range, out of juice, missed call, talking to someone else, etc., etc., etc.
The answer is to NOT leave the child there in first place, not depend on a cell phone call later if you do. Just as when there's a beeping if you have your lights on or keys in the ignition after turning off the car and opening the door, there should be an audio cue that there is an occupied baby seat in the back.
I've wondered if there is a seasonal component to this.
People stay up later and do more stuff in the summer months, so they are more tired, busier and distracted. I think lack of sleep and overscheduling plays a huge part in this type of tragedy.
I forgot my youngest child on the kitchen table once when she was an infant. We had come home late at night and I had taken her in her carrier out first and set it on the table, then went back to carry in her sleeping sibs and put them in bed.
I woke up for her 4 a.m. nursing and found her still sleeping soundly in her car seat on the table.
It was in the summer, too.
The Roman galleries here like to punish anyone who makes a mistake.
"That's not a good answer, but doing nothing is inexcusable."
Yep, keep doing what got us here in the first place....Remove air bags, insurance rates increase, more need for 2 incomes to afford the higher prices and rates, resulting in more children in daycare.....
But we must do more, its for the children...
Stage 1 thinking works for politicians, but it doesn't work for life.
automobile "idiot lights" are called so for a reason.
she probably waits to check her oil until the lights and buzzers go off.
next gubmint mandate...back seat passenger warning systems.
perhaps she had a deadbeat dad who can;t be located and she has no choice but to work and put food on the table for herself and possibly other children she might have.
Yes, it's a VERY stupid mistake, but unfortunately can happen.
I still have a scar on my forehead from when I was little and my mom strapped me in the carseat (think 1975) but the carseat wasn't seatbelted in. she drove around. carseat shifted. she opened the car door. klunk--I fell on the pavement. mom gets hysterical.
There should be a potential patent thread for FR. Ideas pitched by FReepers, worked out on threads, with resident engineers and patent lawyers filing on behalf of a non-profit that will eventually start reporting on FR on its disposition and activities.
Who knows, maybe FReepers could be selected by lottery to sit on the board for the non-profit corporation, and rotated every year. Assuming that it works out and patents are granted, and products are made and sold, etc.
As a single and new first time mom (considered by my doc to be an older mom) I would wake up in the middle of the night and wonder "did I put her to bed?, Is she in the playpen or her crib?" She was always right were I put her at 7:00 at night, in her crib.
I didn't go to work anymore after she was born, I started a business from home (and boy has that been a bumpy ride). I can't imagine the days that my mom and dad watched her (2x a week for a few hours at a time), not calling and saying "hi, everything ok?"
I still do it when I have a friend watch her while I go run errands or have to go to meeting or something, I always just check and make sure everything is ok. - She's 2.5 now. I simply don't know how (new) mommy's go a whole day without knowing something isn't right.
Sounds like you need to move some place with a lower cost of living.
Brought my wife home from the hospital after giving birth to our second child. In the process of getting her and her stuff into the house, I had set the baby carrier down beside the car.
Got her and her stuff into the house and got her settled in. I started doing some other things then it hit me: "where's the new guy?"
I suppose we weren't used to having him around. He was fine and we laugh about it now. But, I'm sure if he'd been out there for hours and died it would be a lot different.
In this particular instance, the day care could have called to ask if she was bringing in her child, assuming this was procedure -- as with schools. Maybe 99 times out of 100 the mother informs them the child is sick or some other reason, but that 1 in a 100....
"This is what a feminist looks like"... Yeah Ashlee..How about "This is what nepotism looks like"?
Potentially another victim of drug abuse.
We had a nasty car accident a few weeks ago where the driver was DUI... at 7am!!! It was not alcohol, it was marijuana.
Anyone who has experience knows that potheads forget what the heck they are doing all the time.
LOL - Did the same thing, only I had set him down just inside the door. Remembered him 5 minutes later.
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