Would anyone else leave a sleeping baby home alone - or am I overreacting?

ska_lover

Are people really saying that it is bad parenting to leave children in car seats whilst paying for fuel? It is highly unpractical to have small children stood around and walking across forecourts, or hauling babies out of car seats with petrol smelling hands, so you can struggle with holding a(t least one) small child whilst paying.

I have never heard of an accident in which a child got killed whilst sitting in a car in the garage forecourt, so i am wondering what the infant mortality rates are for this.

The parents are literally feet away.

Hardly the same as going out for two hours and leaving your baby home alone. Not even in the same ballpark if you ask me.

Bloomin_Freezing2

My kids stay in the car whilst I am physically putting the petrol in but when I go into the shop to pay they come with me.

Lotus-eater

daska wrote: »

In an ideal world you might be right, in real life things aren't so rosy. One of the reasons DSD was removed from her mother was because she got so drunk that she couldn't be woken and DSD was therefore having to be got ready for school and taken there by the hostel workers. On the day she was taken into care both the social workers and the police had struggled to wake her after breaking into the flat.

Well, I said they shouldn't, not they couldn't.

POPPYOSCAR

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Well, I said they shouldn't, not they couldn't.

Its amazing the number of usually rational adults that do drink while they are looking after children.

Reminds me of a party my daughter was at. One of the girls fell over and broke her arm. Neither of the parents could take her to casualty as they had both had a drink. She had to wait for her own mother to pick her up rather than meeting them at the hospital. They both felt terrible about it afterwards.

Lotus-eater

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

Its amazing the number of usually rational adults that do drink while they are looking after children.

Reminds me of a party my daughter was at. One of the girls fell over and broke her arm. Neither of the parents could take her to casualty as they had both had a drink. She had to wait for her own mother to pick her up rather than meeting them at the hospital. They both felt terrible about it afterwards.

I must admit, some nights looking after the kids, I do have a couple of glasses of wine, they're in bed and I know my OH will be back in a couple of hours, but it's not the best idea I suppose.

And me and DS who's 2, go to the village pub sometimes in the daytime, where he has his special fruit shoot and I have a pint. Probably also not a good idea.....

victoriaplum1

jellyhead wrote: »

The old prams had D-rings (I think that's what they're called?) so the baby's reins were attached to those and the baby couldn't fall out of the pram.

My mum used to do it, and I've left my nephew in the back garden because he liked it, but my own kids were limpets who never left my hip.

My brothers D ring pram folded up on him when he was a baby in the hallway whilst my mum was in the kitchen and almost suffocated him, my mum only went back into the hall by chance as he was so quiet to find the bar across his neck- on another occassion he climbed onto the cooker and turned all the rings on, he was stuck by his stomach to the ring and had a big mark til only a few years ago (he is 38 now) and another time he climbed out of the window while my mum was chatting to a delivery man at the door and was running up the main road only in his wellies and nappy - its amazing he is still here to be honest and if you think about all this happening with my mum in the house just doesn't bear thinking about what could happen in a 20 minute time frame of being left alone. I totally appreciate that all children are different and that a freak accident can happen anywhere but you don't invite danger by being totally reckless. Going to the corner shop, over a neighbours etc leaving a young child unattended is wrong, in much the same way as going on a shopping trip 20 minutes away is wrong but I think for most people its the leaving kids unattended and disappearing for a prolonged period is what most parents cannot comprehend. With the Maddie Mccann case I think the reason the McCanns come in for so much flack is because most people would not leave their children unattended and go to another area of the hotel enjoying an evening meal or think for a minute that it was acceptable - ebfore this case most peoples minds may not have been on abduction more on the fact of what happens if child wakes up alone in a strange room and finds Mummy and Daddy gone - thinking about the fear and confusion the child would feel is enough to stop most people. I am really really shocked by the lady is questions behaviour, I get that as a single mum she feels she has no option but obviously she does, she makes arrangements for someone to look after her child while she does what she has to do, takes child with her or foregos the waxing and nails altogether, hardly essential and even if they were still no excuse...you have to report this, not because you want to cause this woman grief but because the childs safety is at risk.

koalamummy

For those worried about leaving children unattended while they pay for fuel why not use the pumps with the card payment facility on them. I have always done this with no problems whatsoever as I am one of those slightly unhinged overprotective parents who never lets her smaller children out of her sight! :rotfl:

jenhug

never in a million years. no way. there are so many factors she just isn't considering.
when mine were babies if they were sleeping and i needed to go in the garden i used to make sure the front windows were closed incase someone climbed in. Probably OTT in some peoples eyes, but when I conceived my children I made a commitment to keep them safe from harm and there was no way I would ever take such a risk.

Stupid, stupid woman.

Misstress

Mentioned this thread to my 18 yo niece today who has a 1 yo boy. She admitted to having thought about popping to the shop round the corner when he was asleep but she never has because it just not worth the risk.

Funnily we were coming out of a soft play centre today and whilst getting into the car I noticed a young child strapped in a carseat in the back of a car with no adult. After quite a while, we sat there watching, the dad comes out after picking up his daughter from the same party we had been attending and turned out to be a relative of my nieces sons dad! Great!

I also used to see the Childrens Worker from the local church who often came into talk to the children about churchy things regularly leave her baby in the car outside of the school to take her daughter in.

jojo_2012_2

I never leave my son to go pay for petrol no.