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Two did not drive at that age because they chose not to.
Our oldest child did not want his driver's license and we did not force him to get one.
He finally got it when he was about 28.
Our daughter also did not want one until she realized she could not ride her motorcycle on the street without one.
Our youngest son rode his bicycle everywhere so he did not get his driver's license until he was about 22 and he only got it because he wanted to drive to Arizona.
They all have known how to drive since they were young and all have been on Motorcycles/dirt bikes since they were about 4 years old.
For them the driver's license was not a necessity and we lived in an area that had very accessible public transportation so they utilized that often.
Two did not drive at that age because they chose not to.
Our oldest child did not want his driver's license and we did not force him to get one.
He finally got it when he was about 28.
Our daughter also did not want one until she realized she could not ride her motorcycle on the street without one.
Our youngest son rode his bicycle everywhere so he did not get his driver's license until he was about 22 and he only got it because he wanted to drive to Arizona.
They all have known how to drive since they were young and all have been on Motorcycles/dirt bikes since they were about 4 years old.
For them the driver's license was not a necessity and we lived in an area that had very accessible public transportation so they utilized that often.
It's still mighty unusual that you didn't leave almost-adults alone in the car for a minute. If they had chosen to get their license at 16, they most certainly would have been alone in the car without you at some point before turning 18. It seems extremely overprotective that you wouldn't them to wait for you in the car at least once in their lives as minors.
It's still mighty unusual that you didn't leave almost-adults alone in the car for a minute. If they had chosen to get their license at 16, they most certainly would have been alone in the car without you at some point before turning 18. It seems extremely overprotective that you wouldn't them to wait for you in the car at least once in their lives as minors.
Unusual in your opinion, normal for our home and children.
Not over protective in my opinion, cautious yes but it was just how it was with us.
If you go with you go inside and if you did not want to go inside you did not go with.
If they had chosen to get their license at 16 it would have been a very different story but they did not make that choice.
I don't see what this kind of tragedy has to do with the child being alone for a moment or two. Isn't it just as likely (or, unlikely) that this would happen while an adult was also in the car?
If you took your child out of the seat to use the ATM and someone had a medical emergency and struck them with their car while they were standing next to you, would you blame yourself for NOT leaving them in the car?
Isn't it far more likely that the child would be injured or killed while YOU were driving?
THIS!!!
I have done it. I reeeaaaalllly can't understand why people freak out about this so much - while at the same time being way more lax about other, much more dangerous things
I'm a risk-averse person. I'm careful and extremely protective when it comes to my child getting hurt - much more so than many other parents I know. I weigh risks, and in my opinion, there's infinitely less risk to leaving a child in a car, strapped in, with comfortable temperatures, locked and not running, and within line of sight (like through glass storefront doors) for a few minutes, than it is to take him out, walk back and forth from the car, and have him inside the store etc. Hell, he's more likely to catch a disease from germs in the store than for something terrible to happen while I CAN SEE THE CAR!! I've never done it in big parkades, but places where I can park right up against the storefront, glass doors, to run inside grab a takeout order, drop off library books at an outdoor bookdrop, etc. I would also leave him in our parking lot under our second-floor apartment windows while I ran up to bring groceries - because making several trips up and down concrete stairs with a toddler and grocery bags is way, way more dangerous, I actually hated those stairs. And yet, every time I was slightly scared - not of something happening to him, but of someone stupid calling the cops on me in that 30 seconds i was dropping off the bags. Because people have these stupid rules that don't actually correlate to any measure of statistical risk. I've actually pretty much stopped doing it after I read a story about one woman almost losing her kids because she ran into a store for five minutes.
Driving is dangerous. Walking across the street is dangerous. You can get hit by another car while you're in it or walking. A kid can catch TB or MRSA in a store or other public place. He can fall and get a concussion while walking out. Everything is dangerous, why people make a few minutes in a carseat such a big deal is beyond me. I've seen kids do things on playgrounds that terrified the living crap out of me - 18 months old teetering on an 8-foot open platform ledge with parents nowhere to be seen, and for some reason that's considered okay. But 5 seconds alone in a car - god forbid, someone call CPS! Don't get that.
I haven't because I've never needed to, there's always been two of us with her when we're in the car so if, for some reason, we don't want to take her out of the car one of us would stay with her.
I know a lot of people in the UK (where pay at the pump isn't as common) that leave their young children in the car while they pay for the petrol - its safer to leave them in the car (doors locked, engine off) than to take them across the forecourt.
Not over protective in my opinion, cautious yes but it was just how it was with us.
Why did a 17 year old sitting in a car for 5 minutes alone seem more dangerous than everything else they did alone without you, like utilizing public transportation often?
NEVER. Not once. And it was a sacrifice that I was willing to make. Take them out of the car seats and bring them in with me. I don't care how quick I could get in and out of a store, I would never leave kids alone in the car. I had a close call once where my daughter, 16, went to the car for her sweater and didn't wait for her brother. She got into the car and I could see a car circling her, she called me from the car and we all went out to get her. The men in the car were yelling at her to get out of the car and go with them. They took off when we all ascended on them. Doesn't matter how old they are if they are alone, they can be a target. If someone doesn't want to be cautious that's up to them, but not me.
I have done it. I reeeaaaalllly can't understand why people freak out about this so much - while at the same time being way more lax about other, much more dangerous things
I'm a risk-averse person. I'm careful and extremely protective when it comes to my child getting hurt - much more so than many other parents I know. I weigh risks, and in my opinion, there's infinitely less risk to leaving a child in a car, strapped in, with comfortable temperatures, locked and not running, and within line of sight (like through glass storefront doors) for a few minutes, than it is to take him out, walk back and forth from the car, and have him inside the store etc. Hell, he's more likely to catch a disease from germs in the store than for something terrible to happen while I CAN SEE THE CAR!! I've never done it in big parkades, but places where I can park right up against the storefront, glass doors, to run inside grab a takeout order, drop off library books at an outdoor bookdrop, etc. I would also leave him in our parking lot under our second-floor apartment windows while I ran up to bring groceries - because making several trips up and down concrete stairs with a toddler and grocery bags is way, way more dangerous, I actually hated those stairs. And yet, every time I was slightly scared - not of something happening to him, but of someone stupid calling the cops on me in that 30 seconds i was dropping off the bags. Because people have these stupid rules that don't actually correlate to any measure of statistical risk. I've actually pretty much stopped doing it after I read a story about one woman almost losing her kids because she ran into a store for five minutes.
Driving is dangerous. Walking across the street is dangerous. You can get hit by another car while you're in it or walking. A kid can catch TB or MRSA in a store or other public place. He can fall and get a concussion while walking out. Everything is dangerous, why people make a few minutes in a carseat such a big deal is beyond me. I've seen kids do things on playgrounds that terrified the living crap out of me - 18 months old teetering on an 8-foot open platform ledge with parents nowhere to be seen, and for some reason that's considered okay. But 5 seconds alone in a car - god forbid, someone call CPS! Don't get that.
Because it isn't a minute. Going into the post office to buy an envelope, doesn't take a minute, neither does the vast majority of things the OP listed. And even when these things typically only take a few minutes, things don't always go typically and a few minutes can quickly turn into 5...10...etc, and these people have already shown they underestimate time. That is when you get into dangerous situations with kids left in cars.
Last summer a local woman ran into the store for a minute, to grab one thing, some milk. That is all she got, but she was gone so long someone called the cops, they responded, had time to bust a window and retrieve the infant. When she came out she said she had only been gone two minutes, and she legitimately thought that but when they used the footage from the CC cameras it had been over ten. She couldn't gauge time well, and I would say anyone who thinks they are out of the car for less than a minute to do things like go in the post office can't either. They should not be using that time to gauge how long they are leaving their kids unattended in a car. Especially, in the warm months.
Yes. I ran in to a convenience store in a good neighborhood for a minute to grab milk leaving one yr old and five yr old in car because it was such a pain to get them in and out of carseats and one yr old was asleep. There was a short line at checkout so one minute turned into five. I almost got arrested - as i drove off, cops were pulling in. Never again.
I never left my kids unattended in the car because I've been the poster child for Murphy's Law my entire life and I was afraid something bad would happen. It only takes seconds for someone to pop your locks and steal your car and kids.
I look at it like this, would you leave a huge pile of cash, jewelry, electronics, etc. unattended in your car? No. My kids are more valuable and precious than any of these things, so why would I be willing to leave them unattended? It simply isn't prudent in this day and age. There are too many wackos out there.
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