Baby found dead in vehicle (left all day in a minivan)

Grand Forks Herald ^ | June 29, 2006 | Lisa Gibson

[BykrBayb]

I hope nothing bad ever happens to you. It would change your world-view so fast it would make you dizzy.

[Wolfstar]

If the key is out of the ignition for more than three minutes with the buckle still in the slot, the windows roll down automatically, and the car's alarm goes off.

You two have really excellent ideas. I strongly urge you to develop them further than just talking about them here. If nothing else, at least submit the ideas to auto and/or baby seat manufacturers.

[OldFriend]

And of course, no perfect family ever lost a child to accidental drowning either.

Not the family of James Baker, nor the famous golfer's family either.

Pure ignorance, deliberate neglect, right?

[Wolfstar]

May that child now be comforted in the loving arms of Jesus.

Although I don't mean to trample on you religious beliefs, such sentiments really get to me. If Jesus' arms are so loving, why didn't He save the child? Would have been so easy. No need for miracles or anything fancy. Plant a reminder in the mom's mind before she got to work. Have the child start wailing just as mom pulls into the company parking lot. Something simple like that.

I know. I know. Free will. Applies to adults, but not to helpless 5-month-olds. So the only conclusion I come to is that either He doesn't give a dang, or He wanted the kid to die, or He doesn't exist. (Personally, I lean toward the He doesn't give a dang scenario.)

[hispanarepublicana]

Bad things HAVE happened to me, usually because of bad choices I made. How I've chosen to react to those consequences, however, always has determined the outcome.
Even if I HAD made a bad choice resulting in getting pregnant outside of marriage, for instance, I could have reacted to the consequnce of a bad choice by making a choice to give the child up for adoption.
If I get the door of a brand new car dinged in a parking lot or if I die in a plane crash, I CHOSE to park where I did and I CHOSE to get on that plane.

[BykrBayb]

And if you ever have to get a job, it will be your own fault.

[SuziQ]

Why again, do they have to be put in the backseat, out of sight, out of mind?

Because newer cars had airbags that were too powerful, and they told folks NOT to put car seats in the front. Thankfully, mine were all babies before air bags on the passenger side were typical. I always had them in the front passenger seat so that I could talk to them and keep them occupied. If they can see you, and 'chat' with you, they are much happier, and you're a much less distracted driver since you don't have to be worrying about them in the back seat.

[fortheDeclaration]

Neither can I, that is ridiculous and sad. I swear people like that must be drunk or drugged.

Amen.

[maica]

Turning your head for a minute is very different, and you know it.

[twigs]

It's about turning your head for a moment, or being distracted, and the child lets go of your hand in the parking lot. Or reaches for the stove, or a million other things

There's so many ways in which we can lose our children in a second. I certainly wasn't a perfect parent. But I just think that leaving a baby in the car is another category altogether.

[twigs]

If Jesus' arms are so loving, why didn't He save the child?

Then why did he create us in the first place if He was going to live our lives for us? I'm not going to get into a theological discussion here, but I hear this type of argument a lot. It applies to 5-month-olds because they are dependent on adults and all of us live together in society. I can understand the question, though. Life--living it and understanding it--is not easy.

[pax_et_bonum]

She should have had her baby on her mind until she carried the baby into the day care and spoke to the person to whom she was entrusting her precious child.

Of course she should have, and there's nobody on this earth who knows and feels that more devastatedly than she does now and for the rest of her life.

Still, she didn't do it intentionally.

It was a tragic mistake for which she shouldn't be judged.

[hispanarepublicana]

What are you talking about? I DO work, but we have no more kids at home.

[Gone GF]

"It's not only about the car. It's about turning your head for a moment, or being distracted, and the child lets go of your hand in the parking lot. Or reaches for the stove, or a million other things where you just know that someone above was looking out for you."

I'd guess that just about everybody here knows somebody who has looked away at the wrong instant and a child has been killed or injured. In a nearby county an 8-year-old girl was playing near a flooded culvert when she was sucked in two days ago. The grandmother taking care of her wasn't looking at that moment. This girl had a family member staying home with her; she wasn't at day care. They found her body yesterday morning.

[RobRoy]

I admit you may have a point. I'll ask my wife. If you look up "mother" in the dictionary, you'll see her picture.

[BykrBayb]

And you didn't have to work when you had kids at home. Ducky for you. It's because you didn't make any bad choices. You are far superior to all those parents who have to work. You've never been stressed out to the point that you couldn't meet all your obligations, because you always make good choices. There is no need to have compassion for people when bad things happen to them, because you know that bad things only happen to people who make bad choices. So they deserve their fate. You deserve to be admired and held up as an example for the world. Everybody should be just like you. Then there would be no need for understanding, because we'd all be perfect.

[Gone GF]

"I hope nothing bad ever happens to you. It would change your world-view so fast it would make you dizzy."

Amen

[hispanarepublicana]

Thanks.

[reagan_fanatic]

I know. I know. Free will. Applies to adults, but not to helpless 5-month-olds. So the only conclusion I come to is that either He doesn't give a dang, or He wanted the kid to die, or He doesn't exist. (Personally, I lean toward the He doesn't give a dang scenario.)

I understand your sentiment. It is a question all of us have struggled with at one time or another, including me. Why did those children have to perish in that plane crash? Why was that infant murdered in a drive-by shooting? Truth is - no one really knows. I do believe in the concept of free will for everyone and that our lives do take directions that are random in nature and not necessarily guided by a higher power.

There is no satisfactory answer to your question, and God has chosen to keep it ambiguous for reasons of his own. Hard as it sometimes can be to understand, I don't believe it is a reason to discard your faith in God like some have done when faced with such tragedies.

If you believe in God and an afterlife, then I have no doubt we'll find the answer to this question once we meet up with the Almighty and then, and only then, will we understand why God chose to do it in the way that he did.

[BJClinton]

I think she's suffering enough as it is.