Ever since I had children, I have no tolerance for people who treat children badly. Period.
This past weekend, my oldest 2 and I ran some errands and when we parked at one store, we pulled in next to a car that had a boy (he looked about 8 years old) and a big dog in it. The windows were cracked and the temperature was about 80 F.
We went into the store and I didn’t mention anything to my sons or anyone in the store. We shopped rather quickly and were ready to leave about 15 – 20 minutes later. When we came to our car, the boy and his dog were still there. I turned around with my boys in tow and went right back into the store.
My boys were puzzled, “what’s wrong mommy?’…I went to an employee and told them what I had observed and they followed me out to the car to see what I was talking about. I assembled my clan into may own car and when I was leaving a few other staff members were making some calls by the car.
So what’s the big deal? For starters, it’s illegal to leave your kids in the car alone. Each area has different laws, so your best bet is to call and check. If it’s illegal in your area, it does not matter if you are in the store for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, in the eyes of the law, it’s illegal. Therefore, if someone does call the police, you will not get off with a warning, they will arrest you and charge you with child neglect and endangerment.
I don’t even want to get into all those awful stories of parents who leave kids in cars because they say they forgot they were there…then they die. I’ll save that for another post!
After we discussed the situation, my kids agreed that that boy should not have been in the car alone, on a warm day for as long as he was. They told me that they would not like it if I did that to them. I told them not to worry – I wouldn’t, nor should anyone else. Be aware of he laws before you assume. Leaving kids in cars alne is not a good idea at all.
