I came across a news story today about an 11-mo old boy who died after his dad "forgot" to drop him off at daycare and he spent the day in a hot car. Here's what I don't get:
1. A newborn...maybe. You're a new parent, the whole dropping off thing is new to you, they don't make any noise and are facing the other way so you can't see them. Maybe. Possibly. But this is an 11-month old who probably babbles. And drops toys. And giggles. And maybe you're listening to some crappy Wiggles CD or singing along to "The Wheels on the Bus" as you're going to work because you're a parent and you have a child. And you've been doing this every day for...how long?
2. The boy was found at 3:30 pm when the daycare called the mom at work to ask if the boy wasn't coming in that day. Hey, how about realizing at 9 am that he hadn't been dropped off and calling then?
Our center has a policy that if your normal hours have you dropping your child off by 9 in the morning and you haven't done so yet, that you call the school to let them know the children aren't coming. If they aren't there, they are supposed to call YOU, the parent, to ensure that they were not supposed to be in that day.
3. Apparently around 36 children every year die by being left in vehicles by their parents. It almost always makes the news, especially in this kind of summer heat, and every time it sickens me inside. So if this is the 10th child killed this year, that means that 26 more times this year some parent somewhere will forget that they once heard about other children dying in this manner and will either intentionally or unintentionally leave their children in their cars.
I'm going to go give my girls hugs now. I don't care that they're sleeping.
I do not understand how an eleven month old can be missed. I have seen people do some things that really get me shaking my head in amazement. Some people get so focused, self-absorbed or what ever a descriptive name is that they walk off scaffoldings while washing windows, walk off buildings, and walk in front of vehicles. Over the years I have learned that nothing a person does surprises me, I find it hard to comprehend, but people are capable of anything. It would be interesting to know whether or not the parent felt remorse, I'm can't imagine not, but in our area we recently had a toddler drowned in a small plastic wading pool. Turns out that toddler has some chronic disease that requires frequent hospitalization and expense. All of a sudden I wonder, how could someone leave a toddler, particularly a sickly child alone in a wadding pool for even a second. I wonder?
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