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The huge difference is that many, many people want your jewelry and your cash, but almost no one wants your child!
And I don't think your examples say much about the safety of homes vs. cars. Your grandmother's $50k in cash may have been "squirreled away" (whatever that means--under the bed?) but burglars generally know where to look. My sister's house in Spokane was broken in to and all her jewelry stolen. Cash and jewels are not safe in a house OR a car because people want to steal cash and jewels. Unlike, you know, children.
Are you serious? I guess you are.
And you are wrong, there absolutely are people who want children and/or would cause them harm. There are just less of them. And it doesn't matter particularly that there are less.
Use your own numbers, the vast majority of people will never have a car stolen, or have there home burglarized, but that doesn't mean you put them in harms way because there exists some risk with no reward. Same with kids, the vast majority will not be kidnapped, but that doesn't mean you put them in harms way because there exists some risk with no reward.
No matter how much you keep downplaying the risk, it is not and never will be none. It's just low. Well the risk of someone stealing from your locked car is low too yet you wouldn't take that one. It defies not just logic and reason, but statistics too. Crazy.
Some facts regarding kidnappings via strangers which constitutes 24% of all kidnappings. Child Abduction Facts
Quote:
•Stranger kidnapping occurs primarily at outdoor locations, victimizes both teenagers and school-age children and is the type of kidnapping most likely to involve the use of a firearm.
•In 80 percent of abductions by strangers, the first contact between the child and the abductor occurs within a quarter mile of the child's home.
•Most potential abductors grab their victims on the street or try to lure them into their vehicles.
•About 74 percent of the victims of nonfamily child abduction are girls.
38% of attempted abductions occur while a child is walking alone to or from school, riding the school bus or riding a bicycle;
37% of attempted abductions occur between the hours of 2:00 PM through 7:00 PM on a weekday;
43% of attempted abductions involve children between the ages of 10 and 14;
72% of attempted abduction victims are female;
68% of attempted abductions involve a suspect driving a vehicle.” [SIZE=2]2
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Based on this we know that children are most at risk when they are outside and within a quarter mile of their home. We know that the kidnapper most likely will try to lure the child into their vehicle either through coercion or force. We know that the kidnapper very likely will have a firearm. We know that the targets are most often girls.
The places that come to mind as the most dangerous for this type of scenario are, walking to and from school or the bus stop. Playing on the block, playing at the local park, walking or biking anywhere in one's own neighborhood. Sitting in a car seat in one's car in the supermarket parking lot for a minute doesn't seem to be high in the risk category. Why is it ok for parents to allow their kids to play outside, walk to school, wait for the bus at a bus stop, etc. but not sit in the car, strapped into a car seat for one minute when we know the former scenarios are riskier then the latter?
How do you know you will literally only be gone for a minute? What if that minute turns into five? Ten?
Rightly or wrongly it is against the law in many places.
Small percentage of danger+good Samaritans+laws in place= I'm not going to do it.
What can you possibly gain from leaving your child unattended? A minute or two of inconvenience?
It won't take 5 or 10 minutes to:
Put books in a book drop
Mail a letter
Return a video, and yes, some of us still use Red Box
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meyerland
Why wouldn't you leave your keys in the car if it's perfectly safe to leave your child there? That means you think there might be a car thief or abductor close by. That means you realize there is a chance of danger.
How long does it take for a thief or abductor to break a window?
Also, what are all these errands that only take a minute?
The library- take your child inside and check out new books and return the old ones.
The grocery store- park next to the cart return and you still supervise your kid, keep your child with you and return it, or leave the cart in the spot like 50% of the patrons.
DVD return- does anyone do this anymore?
Anything else?
Most cars that are stolen have been left with the keys in the car, often with the motor running. Turn off the engine and take the keys and you have reduced the possibility of theft a great deal.
Probably longer than it would take the parent to get back to the car.
Why? Maybe you just have books to return, none you want to check out. Maybe you're in a hurry. My local library has a drive-up book drop. To go in the library, one must park the car and walk about 1/2 block from the back of the lib. to the front door. Try doing that with a couple of squirmy kids on a winter's day. Not fun.
Not all the parents of young children can snag the parking spots next to the cart returns. I wouldn't recommend leaving the cart in the spot.
getting out of seat and messing with brakes/locks
overheating/freezing (esp if something happens to keep me away, like falling or being hit by car)
kidnapping/carjacking
police/bystander noticing
And, BTW, the park near the trolley corrals are not even close to prime real estate. Most people want to be near the shop, not the trolleys.
I was going to say, no I don't see anything wrong with the 1/2 a block/15 feet. This isn't Final Destination, with that gag where the teen gets slammed by a bus going 60 mph, 3 seconds after he's just denied he's going to die. If that 15 feet is where you have a heart attack, you're going to be around long enough to gasp "My kid!", and fling your arm at the car. "What if I see someone I know and they hang me up wanting to talk to me?" "Er, be responsible and say, after a minute or two, I gotta go, Lucy is in the car."
If a parent is responsible and sensible with a good head, I don't imagine them getting into these situations in the first place, and I do think this can encompass people who would leave their children. Some kids are too much of a PITA to untruss them from a car seat for every 30-second errand, and anyone who doesn't think that has either been very fortunate in their children or must be a SAHM. I don't even have the time to linger on my own errands as an inadvertent-childless woman, but mothers, especially in the 21st century, we still believe they = "irresponsible dawdlers"?
Same with kids, the vast majority will not be kidnapped, but that doesn't mean you put them in harm's way because there exists some risk with no reward.
No reward? No benefit? How about you finish your errands faster so you all get to go home?
Seriously, I think the risk of something bad happening to my child in the locked car while I return a cart to the corral is so low that I might as well be worried about abduction by aliens. You obviously disagree. That's fine. Take your kid with you. Let me leave mine for the 30 seconds.
Quote:
getting out of seat and messing with brakes/locks
overheating/freezing (esp if something happens to keep me away, like falling or being hit by car)
kidnapping/carjacking
police/bystander noticing
And it's not like I've never considered any of these things.
1) My children could and did not get out of their seats as infants/toddlers. Even if they had, their opening a door would have instantly set off the car alarm. (Actually, their moving around in the car would set off the alarm). It is not possible to take my car out of "park" unless the key is in the ignition, so there was no concern about the brakes.
2) People don't freeze here. Yes, it is theoretically possible that the kids could overheat if I was hit by a car. (Probably not if I just fell--I would be shouting for help). But I put that in the same highly-unlikely category as fainting and hitting my head in the bathroom, while the baby drowns in the tub. It COULD happen, but it didn't stop me from bathing my babies.
3) Not worried about kidnapping. Not worried about carjacking. Not with the car locked and the keys in my pocket, not in under a minute while I am in eyesight.
4) It wouldn't bother me at all if a bystander sees my child in the car while I am returning my books or cart, since I am in eyesight. What are they going to do, call the police? They will still be on the phone with the dispatcher when I am long gone.
Car thefts are most often crimes of opportunity. Leaving the keys in your car greatly increases your risk of having your car stolen. If the keys are not in the vehicle a thief will more then likely move on to an easier target.
How often does this happen? Thieves breaking car windows in parking lots with people around?
A lot of times, that works, but sometimes you have overdue books and dropping that off at the library in the book return makes the most sense. We are talking about 20 feet or less from the car. How is a child left alone in the car for this quick type of errand at risk?
Sometimes that works to park next to the cart return but again why would anyone think it's harmful to leave them in the car for the minute or less that it takes to return the cart? I think that it's probably more risky to have the child with you in the parking lot then locked in the car, in their car seat.
Red Box.
Okay I get what you are saying.
I would not leave my child in a car without me being within a few feet.
In my opinion If you have to lock your car...it's not safe enough to leave your child. You are saying it's not safe enough to leave an unlocked car for less than a minute. I don't see why it's safe enough to leave your child then.
I mean statistically speaking how many cars are stolen in less than a minute? If we are using statistics, then we should look at that too.
Either it's okay to expose your child to a small amount of risk or it's not. Only a parent can decide.
Just be prepared for people to disagree if you leave you child and go out of eyeshot.
When I lived in a snowy area, it was tempting to leave the kid in the nice warm car for a bit while I returned library books. The drop off was quite a ways from the parking lot. What would happen if I fell. Who would know about my child in the car? The problem I had was that you can't predict the future and hind sight is 50/50. If the book drop was six to ten feet from the car, then I might have don't that. I don't know because I wasn't in that situation.
Last edited by Meyerland; 09-13-2014 at 09:06 PM..
For the most part it's strangers. I actually trust my kids a lot for their age. I know they would never willingly go off with anyone or fall for the old candy trap..
That has actual been tested. Children trained for a long period of time not to let strangers in the house. They set up hidden camera's, with the knowledge of the parents, and a guy talked his way inside the house within a minute.......
Criminals can be very smart, and persuasive.
That has actual been tested. Children trained for a long period of time not to let strangers in the house. They set up hidden camera's, with the knowledge of the parents, and a guy talked his way inside the house within a minute.......
Criminals can be very smart, and persuasive.
I once taught a lesson where I showed photos of various strangers to kindergarteners. They all said the ugly and unusual looking people were strangers. The nice looking women were almost universally said to not be strangers, and the nice looking men were about 50/50. Kids trust people way more often than they don't. If they have a puppy they are considered nice too.
I wouldn't trust my young child to be able to outwit an adult predator.
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