Posted on 08/23/2007 6:08:28 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
Sorry but I must be real dense on this. The car was parked I believe in a hospital parking lot. Since the mom is a Dr, I would assume she works there. I wonder if the dad works there as well.
It just doesn’t make sense. Did they drive together to the hospital and then both get out and walk in without remembering there was a baby??
They both thought the other was going to drive to the daycare. I don’t know but it seems like something is missing.
Mercy and blessings on these afflicted parents.
I recall reading a similar story also in St. Louis a few months ago. One parent backed out of the driveway and ran over the child, thinking the child was with the other parent.
I cannot imagine the grief the parents must feel. It is beyond comprehension.
This happened right here in the Cleveland area back a few years ago. The dad had to drop the kid off since mommy couldn’t and because he didn’t normally do it, he forgot. The toddler died from the heat.
Also, there was a case several years further back where the lady was grocery shopping or something and left the kid in the carseat on top of the car’s roof. She got in and drove off and as she was going down the road, she heard a “thunk” and realized “OMG” and believe it or not, the baby was okay.
Sometimes I think we are living lives that are way too busy for common sense or safety.
I am a devoted Mom and left my youngest at age two weeks in a restaurant. We had put her seat on the floor, she was sleepiing and we left with the two older girls and someone from the restaurant came chasing us down the street.
I felt like Joan Crawford!!
I’d like to think this idea is in the works. It is excellent. Maybe you’ve got yourself a patent there.
Hear hear!!!
Not to mention the accidents caused by moms reaching back to the back seat searching for the lost binkie or whatnot.
Amen. This is a brutal unintended consequence of a prissy nanny-state law. If I was a new parent and had to cart an infant around in the rear seat, I know that at first I'd be a dangerous driver. My mind wouldn't be on the road because I'd constantly be looking behind me or studying the rear-view mirror. Eventually to "be safe," I'd have to check that perfectly good and healthy instinct at the door and retrain my mind NOT to look. After awhile ... drive the vehicle, baby, errands ... out of sight, out of mind.
And this guy is going to have to live with himself. My god, what sadness. His first, natural, healthy impulse would have been to put the baby on the seat beside him. This death probably would not have occured if not for a nanny state rule.
Chuck Yeager describes the essence of all great Americans when he writes: "I've always said that the rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own." Americans with the true interests of their kids and future will conclude, "Screw the nanny state rules." The real rules are to put their kids first.
You probably got it right. Any parent who could do this will get over it. Little error in their busy lives.
Thanks for the stats. Of course the real issue is whether lives are saved with having them in the back seat compared to being forgotten but there is a good idea of having the baby bag in the front seat so no one forgets the kids is way back yonder. Personally I think it is best to designate one parent to be primary caretaker, usually the mother. I love men to death but they are not multi-track naturally. When couples kind of wing it, I can see how one can perhaps forget whose day it was to drop off the kid. My kids are grown now, safely. The van we had for awhile was a VW, which tends to be more open and visible throughout. Nowadays vans are caverns of darkness and cushions and headrests.
I wonder if H & W had separate cars, each equipped with a child safety seat and, apparently, W puts the baby in H's car but H thinks W put the baby in W's car.
Any other way, and this makes no sense to me.
It happened to a couple here. They set the baby in a car seat down behind the van and forgot. The baby survived.
Thank you for your honesty. It is wonderful to see some normal people on this site, since so many are holier than thou.
I was going to use my example of living close to one of the facilities where I work. There are many times when I am on my way home and I drive right past the entrance to my house because my pattern is to go to work, or vice versa. When driving, you do get distracted.
It is pretty easy to see how this could happen. One parent probably put the child in the car; since the other parent didn’t do it, and thought parent #1 was taking the child to daycare, didn’t even realize the child was in the car.
Lives too busy is probably the biggest problem here.
I know this is not the same circumstance, but when my 18 month old son was choking and turning blue, we ran outside to the front lawn for rescue to come. He had expelled the the hot dog, which was cut in half, but still did it. The police and rescue wanted us to go to the hospital, and I almost did, but then I remembered I had a 3 month old sleeping upstairs. I still think about that after 26 years, and can’t believe I even forgot her at that time. That is probably the worst thing that I ever had in my life. A child choking, and a child I might have left behind. You never forget. By the way, we dislogded the hot dog, and he was running around the front lawn when they arrived. It is a day I will never forget.
Nothing to see here - just an extra-late term abortion (7 months POST-birth)...
I totally agree.
It's crazy you can put a baby in the back of a VW bug, but the front seat of a Dodge Ram 1500 is illegal here. That's just madness.
I suspect that one put the baby in the other’s car to be helpful. And the one whose car the baby was in thought the other parent had it.
No, I don't know that they wouldn't leave their laptop, dog, or cell phone in the car.
What I do know is that I'm not about to judge these parents who have probably just made the mistake which is most likely ripping their hearts and minds to shreds, which will drive them either to, or as close to, insanity as a person can go and which will destroy all of their hope to ever have peace on this earth.
Who besides God can know them and their circumstances well enough to judge their actions?
Too many people on this forum think that they have the right to play God.
THAT'S what I find disgusting.
IN ADDITION, a great many of the judgemental people here proclaim to be Christians.
Well, I seem to recall Christ telling us that the one among us who HAS NO SIN has the right to judge others.
He also taught us that we are to LOVE our neighbor. He didn't make it optional.
And if there EVER was a couple of neighbors who needed love, it's these people.
I’m glad you told your story. There is not one person on this thread that hasn’t made a mistake with their child—at least one. If they say “no”, they are liars. What a bunch of judgmental jerks.
***All you’d need to do is have the baby’s bag in front with you. That visual should be enough to remind a person who is so distracted that they forget they are parents.***
Very good thinking.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.