"how do you respond when you see kids left in the car unattended?"
I stopped to pick up some household items on the way home from work. The car I parked next two had unattended children in it. I wouldn't have even noticed if the toddled hadn't called out "hi" to me. I look at her - she is 3 or 4 years old. I see that the window is a quarter of the way down and that there is another child in the car a few years older but definitely younger than 10 yrs old. I check my phone - it is 82 degrees outside. I look toward the store. I sigh, and I go on in there and get what I need. I was only in there about 10 minutes. The car was gone when I came out.
I felt uncomfortable about moving on about my business, but I didn't want to over react. Nor did I really know how to react. I know if I was a parent I wouldn't have done that.
♥ Inescapably Me ♥
"Love is never any better than the lover" Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye)
1. "generally nothing." In response to Reply # 0 Thu Apr-09-15 06:46 PM by SoWhat
if anything i'd maybe stand by and keep an eye on the kids until someone claims the car.
now that i've worked on child endangerment cases i know i would NOT call the police in that situation, nor would i alert staff at the store - b/c they'd probably call the police.
putting the parents or other caretakers through the criminal justice system won't help those kids, most likely. and it will just cause the parents more drama than is necessary.
2. "I have seen it twice and both times I ask the kids if they need water" In response to Reply # 0
both times the kids said they were fine. Both cars were parking under a tree. Both times I waited to see how long the parent/adult was going to be. My wife works at a baby store and she had a customer in her store that left her baby in the car sleeping while she shopped. The only reason she knew was because another customer came inside and told them to call the cops. Turns out her and her husband who was a sheriff parked right next to the car with a baby. On their way in to shop for their baby. They noticed the sleeping baby and he broke into the car and sent the wife in to call the police. This was last summer. Summers out here are brutal. August and September are 100-110 daily. The baby was dehydrated but fine. The lady was more pissed about people getting in her business than the well being of the baby. I remember a handful of times my brothers and I were left in the car. We were at least 10 years old. It was usually let me run inside to pay for the gas be right back. These days I wont even do that. People are stupid though.
November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!
7. "i reminisce on the times my dad used to leave me and my sister in the" In response to Reply # 0
car in the most brooklyny of brooklyn areas he's a teacher but he's always kinda been a travel agent on the side i say kinda bc he would just get friends and friends of friends together to go on trips so that he could travel for free (lol) and a lot of times he'd make stops to collect money and leave our ass in the car. the furthest back i can remember is being like 4 or 5 and my older sister is 3 years older than me he'd be like 'be right back' and we'd legit be waiting at least 20 minutes (what felt like hours as a child but thinking back it wasn't that long)
i say all of that to say depending on the age of the kids i don't think i'd do anything. if they're helpless baby age and might die in the heat or something then yea or if it was just one toddler chilling helplessly then maybe but in the situation you encountered i'd K.I.M. and not even think twice about it.
Especially if I see the hazards or the car running or some shit.
But if it's parked in a lot or something like that, to me that shows the parent might be in there a while.
I actually stayed in my car at a Walmart until the parent came out...soon as she came to her car I got out, and told her the situation. She thanked me so much for everything, and told me that she was only in Walmart to get something quick but the line got out of control.
Abdul Jabbar, Muggsy Malone you I don't know what that means but you know what I meant when I told you (c) Sean Price
how any of us made it through our youth. It doesn't mean that everything our parents did was right but I don't wanna be the person to put kids through unecessary shit like what's fouond in that article I swiped.
Atthat age, I was miles away from home on my bike and with my lil bro, cousins, and friends or riding to meet those same people. My mom left us in the car while she went into the bank, gas company, elec company, water company, grocery store, etc. We sat our asses in that car and followed the directions she gave us before she got out.
Don't talk to nobody! Don't take nothing from nobody! Don't open the doors! Don't get out!
TheAlbionist Member since Jul 04th 2011 3306 posts
Tue Apr-14-15 10:24 AM
15. "People assume kids are such pussies these days." In response to Reply # 0
I can remember being left in a locked car for 1/2hr-1hr or so on a few occasions as a kid by my Mum... definitely at age 4, but probably before too... I mean, that was in Britain, so it was unlikely to get dangerously hot, but yeah... I counted up as high as I could and then she was back... what's the problem? It was locked. I had a bag of sweets and a drink. Nobody was about to steal me.
Stepping in to correct another human being's parenting rarely ends well.
Printer-friendly copy 
Email this topic to a friend
General Discussion
