Am I overreacting?? Kinda long

KevsLove · July 2013

A friend posted a link to an article detailing ANOTHER instance of a child being left in a car while the parent went into store. (I'm not going to get into my thoughts on that)

After a few responses along the lines of "Horrible parenting", " brick to the window" and stuff like that one of her friends proceeds to post this:

L: "When R*** was a baby, she was really sick with a cold. On the way back from the doctor's, she fell asleep in her car seat. She hadn't slept all night. So when I pulled up to the drug store to get her prescription, I decided to lock her in the car and go in alone, leaving her to sleep. I'd like to say I was gone for 5 minutes, but truthfully it was more like 15. When I came out there was a woman beside my car, ranting at the top of her lungs, asking whose baby this was. She scared the crap out of me. First I thought something was wrong with Bekah. My next thought was that she was trying to steal my baby. Then she lit into me and threatened to call child welfare. Some of you will think "good for her". Maybe some of you will see that I had no intention of hurting my child, and that sometimes you need to see the context before you make a judgement. Either way, R*** slept through it all.

To say I was furious is an understatement. Another lady made a comment, in no way tearing this woman a new one, and the response from L was snarky and rude so I posted about when a van full of kids (aged 5-7) rammed into my parents minivan after their parents left them alone. They started fooling around and caused the van to engage and hit my parents car hard wnough that a carseat would have been crushed. She went on to complain how judgemental people are and hops I never need compassion.

My response was: I'm not sure what you mean by crushing people as a bandwagon. I know that accidents happen, it mentioned the parent who's kid climbed into the back of the car and the parent didn't know. I also know sometimes it's irresponsibility on the parents part, like the dad who went shopping. That's why investigations happen. What I don't understand is doing it on purpose. It's not judging, it's being concerned. How was the woman to know you were one of the 'good' parents and not some irresponsible mother?

Am I being to hard here?

kirbabe · July 2013

She could have been arrested for child negligence. I remember a few years ago a mother was arrested for walking something like 50 ft away from her baby in her car with her toddler son so he could drop off a toy for donation at Christmas. That seemed excessive. The car was in full view of the woman the entire time.

HFrizzle · July 2013

Not at all, I would have ripped her a new one. I report people that do this. I don't care if you are gone for 5 minutes or 2 minutes, no baby or kid should be left in a car alone. Too many things can happen, unless you want to live with that guilt all your life or be charged for a crime if something horrible did happen.

CousinVicki · July 2013

Jenball717 · July 2013

HFrizzle:
Not at all, I would have ripped her a new one. I report people that do this. I don't care if you are gone for 5 minutes or 2 minutes, no baby or kid should be left in a car alone. Too many things can happen, unless you want to live with that guilt all your life or be charged for a crime if something horrible did happen.

I report people too. And now it is illegal in my state to leave your kids in the car alone for any period of time. As it should be everywhere! I have taken pics of the license plate and called dispatch and given them the vehicle info. I don't address the parents myself, don't need to get myself in an altercation with an irresponsible idiot.

pmarie33 · July 2013

Nowadays common sense should tell any parent with kids to make sure to go to a pharmacy with a drive thru.

PSA for FTM: do this now before you forget.

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Am I overreacting?? Kinda long

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