Posted on 08/23/2007 6:08:28 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
Each Parent Thought The Other Was Taking Daughter To Child Care
ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI-myFOXstl.com) --
A 7 month old baby girl died after police say she was left in a locked car for 4 hours in the sweltering summer heat.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxstl.com ...
There are tons of poeple who say “IT COULD NEVER HAPPEN TO ME!!!” for various situations (kidnapping, car accidents, etc). Guess what happened next?
Sometimes, “it” happens. And no matter how careful one thinks they are, no matter how much double, triple, and quadruple checking is done, there is always a chance that a really big “OOPS!” could occur.
All you can do is pray and say “There but for the Grace of the Lord.”
and I am the type of person who could never shut our bedroom door...to this day...because I wanted to be able to hear the kids....
No, for you to castigate those who think that the holier than thou attitude is out of place is absurd. It’s abominable that conservatives fall into this trap that no parent can make a mistake without being crucified.
For goodness sake, we are conservatives, we believe in parents abilities, and we recognize human fraility, and that every conceivable action does not require a law or reaction to rectify or prevent it. Less government, right?
As conservatives we should be praying for this family, how horrific, instead we are coming on here and anonymously posting how horrible these parents are.
As conservatives we should be taking back America for the good of our nation by promoting, encouraging, welcoming stay at home moms (or parent). Making it so attractive that no one would refuse it.
Instead, we come on here and say things like “how could any mother forget her child.” I do not feel more righteous, I am disappointed in our reaction.
With the judgers, it's the same thing. At least if someone is at fault, they don't have to face the reality that you can be a good person, minding your own business, and blammo, without warning, something can happen(a drunk driver? a bolt of lightening? cancer?) and turn your whole life to ruin. Who wants to deal with that? So they say "that guy was an idiot, he had it coming" and move on.
Humans are strange. We all need help.
What you said in this post is so true. It's a human's attempt to control, if I can blame someone else's tragedy on them or something they did, then I don't have to worry about it happening to me, and I "feel better" about life.
Once life beats you up a bit and you realize that control is an illusion, it's much easier to have compassion for those who experience tragedy in their lives.
Thanks for the post, you were "right on."
I posted the link & excerpt in the interest of providing a bit more info about how the incident happened.
The dad is a researcher--I'm supposing he works fixed hours, like 9-5. The mom is a pediatrician at the facility and I'm supposing her hours are erratic & that she is 'on call'. So, it's highly possible that she had been called in to work because one of her patients was in distress. That scenario explains why she might have called her husband to meet her, park her car and why she would have thought that he would check the baby into the campus daycare.
“Maybe it’s time to start putting babies back in the front seat.”
I think that’s a good idea. At least it could be done in the summer months.
To clear up the confusion—the quote is from the article that I posted a link to in post #64.
A side note regarding the nanny state. When airbags were introduced, the specs in the US were for stopping an UNbelted adult travelling at a high rate of speed. So the impact on a small person, or in a slow-moving fender bender was catastrophic. In Canada, where compliance to wearing seat belts was much higher, the velocity of the airbag detonator was only half the strength of the ones required in US made cars..
“Seems to me there was a Biblical couple who lost track of “their” child and couldn’t find Him for 3 days and I don’t think they were “bad parents” because of it.”
Dawn, what a perfectly timed and appropriate reference! Something to remember when we are ready to accuse others of all kinds of terrible things! My heart is breaking for these poor parents who are no doubt torturing themselves with “if only”s.
me too.....and in the car they are usually loud enough they are hard to ignore
A few years back (same place of employment), a smiliar situation to the one in the story happened to two of my coworkers. They were married (to each other)--and it was usually mom who took the baby to the day care. But, she had to be in earlier than normal for a meeting, so it was up to dad this day to take the baby to the sitter...something he did not normally do. When mom got off work she walked over to the daycare (close to our work), to pick up the baby. She was told the baby wasn't there, hadn't been dropped off. SO, she called her husband on the cell phone and asks where the baby was...
Reports from other coworkers is that he ran like a bat out of hell to the parking lot, mom ran from the daycare--the baby was still in the car.
FOrtunately, even though it was September, we had had an abnormally cool/overcast day. The baby, though dehydrated, was fine. The cops wouldn't let mom or dad in the back of the ambulance as the baby was taken to the hospital, but both parents were in hysterics.
My dad once left my sister and me at a gas station in Salinas, CA..he thought all kids were accounted for and in the car. He drove a good 20 miles before he realized something was amiss.
Career moms in my observation often don't really bond with their babies. I suspect they have a lower level of maternal hormones circulating in their systems -- whether because of career distractions, divided loyalties, or simply separation (infant placed in daycare).
We had an assistant county prosecutor here in NJ leave her infant unattended in a car for hours recently. Same excuse -- she "forgot" to take the baby to daycare. Fortunately the day was on the cool side, and the baby lived.
Oh, I wasn’t excusing it. I guess I could see how someone might forget for a few minutes, but “hello.” Sometimes I wonder if these people have ADHD. I realized I had it when we started going to a support group after my son was diagnosed. I get distracted a lot but NEVER have I been that distracted.
When my son was small (age 4-6) he’d run around the with the kids across the street and down a few doors. I was on my front porch the whole time; didn’t get much done, but I got to read my Bible and a lot of poetry, which I now have a passion for. I wonder how many moms would give up that much time.
My baby is 30 now. I still worry about him (and now my daughter-in-law). My mom said, “It never ends.”
The high-and-mighty people who are so arrogantly critize these parents are doing, I think, just what Huck says. This was an accident, and life DOES have sharp teeth. Here's the deal: LIFE ISN'T FAIR. It never has been, it never will be, and no one, not God nor Jesus, ever said it WOULD be.
The bottom line: parents need to recognize and adapt Chuck Yeager's philosophy: The rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own. Parents who tell the Nanny State to go screw itself, parents who make up their OWN rules for keeping their children safe and who cart them around in the front seat, are the smartest ones. They are looking to their own houses -- and that's EXACTLY what all these self-righteous twits on this board who critizes these people should be doing. But they don't because it doesn't give them the illusion of being superior or safe.
Excellent post!!! I salute you!
Poor baby. Poor parents. What a sad story.
I’m honored, Chena. Thank you.
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