Is it ever OK to leave kids alone in the car?
Lately, there has been a rash of women arrested for leaving their kids in their cars while they go shopping.
The AJC reports: A mother of 4-month-old twins was arrested on charges of child cruelty on Saturday night after another shopper heard the babies’ cries through the cracked windows at about 10 p.m..
“Firefighters forced their way into Janesia Williams’ Toyota Scion and rescued the babies, according to a Clayton County Police report. Paramedics were checking out the children when Williams walked out of the Ellenwood store.”
“Paramedics said the babies were in good health, but still transported them to Southern Regional Medical Center for observation.”
“Williams told police she was only in the store for five minutes, according to a police report. However, Darlene Marshall, who was parked next to Scion, told police the twins were unattended for at least 20 minutes.”
Earlier this month, the AJC reported “a woman left two children, ages 1 and 3, alone in an unlocked car while she went into a Marietta Wal-Mart and shoplifted items for herself, according to Cobb arrest warrants.”
“Lashaundra Chantee Cooper, 23, was arrested at 12:30 a.m. Saturday when an officer located her vehicle with the two children inside.”
“The 1-year-old was screaming and walking on the front seat, according to the warrant. The keys were in the ignition. There was one car seat in the vehicle, but neither child was in it, according to the warrant.”
“Cooper, of Marietta, faces a felony child cruelty charge, according to a warrant. Additionally, she faces a shoplifting charge for allegedly concealing $24.75 worth of merchandise in her handbag and exiting the store.”
I think it seems pretty clear that it’s not OK to leave your kids in a car to go into Wal-Mart or a big store of the like, but is it always so clear cut?
Is it OK to leave your kids in the car to:
Go inside the Starbucks to get a coffee if you can see your car and the kids through a glass window?
Drop a video in the drop box – do you have to be parked directly in front of the box?
Park in front of the vet’s office and standing in the doorway hand-off your dog or pay a bill? Do you have to keep one leg or half your body out of the door?
Leave them parked in the car to run to the ATM?
Or to run into your elementary school to check out a child if parked in front of the school?
Is it ever OK to leave your kids in the car for any length of time? If so what are the standards?
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63 comments Add your comment
catlady
June 23rd, 2009
1:47 pm
Common sense isn’t common among the many self-absorbed “parents” we have nowadays.
Theresa Walsh Giarrusso
June 23rd, 2009
2:24 pm
JG — A friend told me that a mom leaned into a store to pay with the kids right out front and the cop came and gave her a really hard time about it — I’m trying to remember if he cited her wtih anything — i’ll ask my buddy and update –
reeses_peace
June 23rd, 2009
4:06 pm
I’m guilty. I once left my 6 mo. old in the car asleep while I got mail from my PO Box. I could see him at all times and it took less than 45 seconds. He was probably at greater risk of me dropping the infant carrier if I’d brought him in than from anything that could have happended while he was in the car. I should mention that he’s 5 now and was not adversely affected by the incident.
Robin
June 23rd, 2009
6:05 pm
I have run back into our house for something, after she is in the carseat, but I lock the doors, and it is not too hot/cold when I have done this. I have also parked at the movie/library drop box and with the car 4 feet from me, put the items in the drop box. The futherest (sp) I have gotten from her in the car, is to put the shopping cart up, But she was locked in the car, and I was gone maybe 15 seconds at the most.
The worst thing that ever happened was 2 years ago in the winter. It was a VERY cold day, and my husband called me at work, in a panic. He and our toddler had been grocery shopping. He put the groceries and her in the car, buckled her in her seat, and accidently locked the keys in the truck with her. His cell phone was in the truck as well. He had to leave her sitting there, go back into the store, to call me to come unlock the truck. As soon as he got off the phone with me, he returned to the truck, and stood right beside her window until I arrived. She tried to unlock the door, but in her 5 point harness, she couldn’t reach it. All turned out okay, but I have been a little paranoid of locking her in the car with the keys ever since!
fk
June 23rd, 2009
6:25 pm
I left my son in the car on occasion when I ran in to pay for gas…
penguinmom
June 23rd, 2009
7:03 pm
Leaving very young kids in the car to run into Walmart, etc is definitely bad. Leaving them in the car while you drop off library books in a drop box or get the mail, I just really don’t see a problem with this.
I almost always leave my kids (5, 9, 13) in the car when I run into QT to get a Coke. Door locked, cellphone available, windows cracked or down. I don’t leave the keys or the car running because that would make a possible car-jacking easier. (not that anyone would want to carjack my old ugly van.)
As far as the kids getting out of their seats, if I ever caught either of the younger two unstrapped, they would all get in such Huge Trouble that they wouldn’t ever think of doing it again. (And they know this.) I guess if you have problem disobedient children this would have to be a concern.
I really think we worry way too much about stranger abduction. Unless you are involved in a messy divorce/relationship breakup, your chances of having your child taken are so extremely small. If there is a suspicious looking person around then perhaps you have chosen the wrong QT/Starbucks/ATM to go to and should drive on to a safer location.
motherjanegoose
June 23rd, 2009
8:23 pm
I did once leave my sleeping infant son in his car seat ( over 20 years ago) at a Kwik Trip ( that is how it was spelled) in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was pouring down rain and I was lost. We did not have GPS or cell phones ( nor cordless phones in the house or Cd’s in our car LOL) and I had to pick my husband up at the airport. I did not want the baby soaking wet and crying while I tried to figure out where to go. Those car seats did not even have handles and you needed both hands to carry it. I was one of the only cars in the lot.
My husband remembers sitting in the car with his brother and 2 sisters while his parents enjoyed themselves in the enlisted club on base. He told us that once, they were heading out of town
( moving) and they were waiting in the car with their dog. The dog escaped ( I think it jumped out the window) and his Dad made them leave and move without the dog…they never saw him again.
While I am glad things have changed mostly for the better, our kids “aint seen nothin” compared to what we went through.
I remember when my parents left me ( age 13) in charge of my sister and four other kids under 10 ( who belonged to their friends that were camping with us) at a campground ( we were on vacation). There was NO way for us to reach either set of parents and we could NOT sit inside the tents and campers as it was WAY too hot. I was a nervous wreck! I would not leave my daughter in this situation and she is 17!
Cammi317
June 25th, 2009
2:11 pm
It’s just a different time. We got left in the car all the time, and that was growing up in Chicago! We didn’t really live in a “problematic” neighborhood. In fact, my Mom, on several occasions, left my toddler brother in the house napping while she ran to pick us up from school. She would just call the neighbor a couple of doors down and let her know she would be back in 20 minutes or so and ask her to keep her eye out. However, that being said, we got a real wake up call regarding the changing demographics of our neighborhood one day. Just like she always had, one day my mom left out to pick us up and decided to go back in the house and take bring my brother anyway. She then remembered that she had left her wedding rings on the kitchen counter and ran back to get them. By the time she picked us up and we got back to the house, someone had broken inside. To this day, we believe that it was one of our newer neighbors. The police said it had to be somebody that knew her pattern and had been watching for a while. That was all she wrote. Shortly thereafter, my parents sold the house and moved us to burbs of Atlanta.
jsh
June 27th, 2009
11:32 am
When I was 18, my older sister had cancer surgery. She’s 10 years older than me and had two children of her own ages 10 and 8. At the time my mother was also babysitting two young boys one two and one about 6 months as well as my other sister’s 3 yr old daughter. I was left to take care of all 5 of them so my mom could stay at the hospital with my sister.
I took all 5 children with me wherever I had to go and neither one of them were EVER left in the car. EVER. I took them to the mall, to walmart, to the bank to the grocery store. Sure it was tough and it took a bit longer, but they were safe within my sight at ALL times.
The ONLY time I can see leaving a child in the car alone is when you’re not 5 feet away from them. I have stopped to get pizza and had my niece’s son fall asleep. I stopped right at the door, never went all the way inside, asked someone to take the money and bring the pizza to me as I wasn’t leaving my baby alone. I just don’t see how anyone can do that.
Mother of THree
July 5th, 2009
12:00 pm
I am a mother of three (8, 4, 1). I must admit that I have left the children in the car for less than a minute to run into the store. All of the gas stations in our town don’t have an attendant so I have to pump and then run in and pay the cashier for the gas and literally run back to the car. I will pull up close to the store and lock the doors and leave the ac on while I run in to pay. I have also ran up to the post office box to drop off a letter and run back into the car with the kids. I would never leave them in the car to go shopping at Walmart. That is just stupid.
urelaa
September 17th, 2009
7:40 pm
is it okay if i leave my 3 year old inside the car with my 15 year old son,,,… if i was only gone for 5 minutes in a building to do some paperwork/??
pat
December 9th, 2009
1:32 pm
to-day i saw awoman leave her yound child in a locked car in a car park she went around the courner to the atm machine,so car was out of sight.when she came back i told her how wrong she was and she said she had done nothing wrong.what would she have told her husband had there been a spark and the car in flames and lost thire child. does’nt bear thinking about does it.
Jessica Byrn
June 27th, 2010
4:13 am
Please Mrs. Melodromatic if the car was going to go up with flames it would do it rather mom was in the car or not unless she left unattended lighter in the car and the kids caused the fire–how likely is that too happen? very unlikely do cars go up in flames…It’s not like she left them for an hour to shop..course she would have been better to leave the car insight..Still at the same time what right is it of yours to tell others how to raise their children…its natural for all of us to be concerned but I only concern myself with parents who leave them alone for a long time or physically abuse their children or kids that really just need new mom’s…Parents are not always perfect single moms like me really can’t do it all and all we can do is try and sometimes we have our hands too full does that make us a bad mom? Nope just human and people w ho think we are all need to be Super mom’s well are just plain nuts…but who made us the critics and the judge of other moms//the moms who obviously want nothing bad to happen to their children are generally good moms and take care of their kids but who can’t be in 10 places at once and have things that happen…such as I had to leave my 4 yr. old son parked in front of gas station I ran into to get us drinks..he fell asleep so I left my 9 year in the car with him and this ain’t a big city..small town..unfortunetly my older son came into the store as I was making purchase cause he wanted something…Kids are kids thankfully I was already on my out and hmm..he survived for that long maybe 3 min i was in the store…gee I’m such a horrible mom who should have never had kids…