Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > New Jersey
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 05-12-2015, 08:16 AM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic
32,849 posts, read 36,161,804 times
Reputation: 43635

Advertisements

The only times and place I left my young child alone in the car was when it was parked in my driveway. If I had to run into the house to get something before we left, I didn't see any point in getting him out of his car seat only to put him back in about 90 seconds later.

If I'd left him alone in the car, anything could have happened in the few minutes I was gone. What if someone hit the car? He would have been alone and frightened. If something happened to me, no one would know he was there. How do you justify that to the other parent, yourself, or anyone?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 05-12-2015, 09:04 AM
 
Location: Springfield, NJ
312 posts, read 684,552 times
Reputation: 163
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerania View Post
The only times and place I left my young child alone in the car was when it was parked in my driveway. If I had to run into the house to get something before we left, I didn't see any point in getting him out of his car seat only to put him back in about 90 seconds later.

If I'd left him alone in the car, anything could have happened in the few minutes I was gone. What if someone hit the car? He would have been alone and frightened. If something happened to me, no one would know he was there. How do you justify that to the other parent, yourself, or anyone?


You can get carried away with the what ifs, but you can always play it the other way. What if you brought him inside and the store got robbed? He would have been better off in the car alone. You can't make your decisions based on random unlikely what if scenarios.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2015, 09:10 AM
 
2,664 posts, read 2,080,016 times
Reputation: 3685
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaymoney View Post
Look, we all had parents who did things differently. Cars used to not have seatbelts for that matter and football players used to wear leather helmets and link arms as they ran down the field literally stepping on the other team.

As additional safety techniques are developed things are going to change. Taking your kids or your pets out of the car is one of them.
But if you look at crime statistics,the country is a lot safer now then 10 - 20 years ago. This is not asafety technique; it is just a sign of fear, insecurity and paranoia. Possiblealso influenced by legal mafia. Although that influence is finally starting to diminish now.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2015, 09:32 AM
 
Location: West Orange, NJ
12,546 posts, read 21,368,110 times
Reputation: 3730
Quote:
Originally Posted by DefiantNJ View Post
But if you look at crime statistics,the country is a lot safer now then 10 - 20 years ago. This is not asafety technique; it is just a sign of fear, insecurity and paranoia. Possiblealso influenced by legal mafia. Although that influence is finally starting to diminish now.
I won't do it because a child cannot help themselves if there is trouble - not because I'm worried about trouble actually being likely to happen.

i can play lots of what ifs that would be rare - but that's not the point. the point is, if a rare event happens, the child is strapped in, unable to help themselves and likely not even of the frame of mind to bang on the window or yell for help.

if the child is with me in a store and it gets robbed (or some other awful event) - at least there's people with the ability to assist the child.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2015, 11:07 AM
 
2,664 posts, read 2,080,016 times
Reputation: 3685
Quote:
Originally Posted by bradykp View Post
I won't do it because a child cannot help themselves if there is trouble - not because I'm worried about trouble actually being likely to happen.

i can play lots of what ifs that would be rare - but that's not the point. the point is, if a rare event happens, the child is strapped in, unable to help themselves and likely not even of the frame of mind to bang on the window or yell for help.

if the child is with me in a store and it gets robbed (or some other awful event) - at least there's people with the ability to assist the child.
I am talking specifically about leaving a sleeping small child(2-5) in a car, with doors locked and stepping out for 5 - 7 minutes to get either prescription or pick up an order. Not in a summer. If there is a line in wherever you go, then you come back. I think this alternative is much less stresfull for an adult and a tired child provided they are in a safe neighborhood.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2015, 02:42 PM
 
1,977 posts, read 7,742,190 times
Reputation: 1168
While I understand the intent, I personally have never left my child in the car until the older one was about 8yrs old I still took the baby in with me. By then he knew to keep the doors and windows closed and locked. He knew how to use my cell phone and call the police if there was a problem. Even then, I never left the keys and made sure to be back within 10 minutes, even if that meant giving up on whatever it was I was trying to accomplish.

Now that the younger one is 8, I leave them both in the car with the same rules and such. If I feel its too hot to be in the car, they have to come with me whether they like it or not.

Being responsible sometimes means purposefully making your life MUCH harder than it has to be, just to be sure there will be no problems.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2015, 03:44 PM
 
Location: The Communist State of NJ
7,216 posts, read 11,906,240 times
Reputation: 3756
Quote:
Originally Posted by imoapie View Post
But yet the statistics show otherwise. I think that it is just more apparent in the news vs in the old days when you didn't hear about it.
Yup.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bradykp View Post
actually, there were plenty of crazy people around - people just weren't aware of it then. no 24 hour news cycle. no sex offender registry. etc. etc.
Double yup.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2015, 04:01 PM
 
Location: Rural Central Texas
3,672 posts, read 10,585,817 times
Reputation: 5577
My mother routinely left us in the car for short and not-so-short errands. Never in really hot weather (south texas get really hot) but above 80 was not unusual. Usually it was for a quick trot into the corner store or a short trip into the Piggly Wiggly. a few times it was for a hairdresser appointment (NOT Short!).

She would never do this today. She claims times are different.

I remember being fascinated as a 4 year old pushing a screwdriver through the fabric of the headliner and feeling the moment the screwdriver pressure overcame the fabric tension and "popped" through. really fascinating at that age. I must have put 50 holes in the passenger side of the car headliner that morning. Maybe it was when my brother swallowed all the caps on the door locks just to prove he could do it . Perhaps the odor of the overheated cigarette lighter clued her into the things we could find to play with in the car. I am pretty sure she never realized about the time we were playing tag around the car while she was in the office chatting while picking up her Amway order. I know I never told her how we discovered you could pull off the back seat and crawl into the trunk if you were small enough. I didn't fit by that time.


Yeah, she says it because it is more dangerous these days. I think she just learned her lesson.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-12-2015, 07:32 PM
 
10,181 posts, read 10,232,521 times
Reputation: 9252
Quote:
Originally Posted by DefiantNJ View Post
I am talking specifically about leaving a sleeping small child(2-5) in a car, with doors locked and stepping out for 5 - 7 minutes to get either prescription or pick up an order. Not in a summer. If there is a line in wherever you go, then you come back. I think this alternative is much less stresfull for an adult and a tired child provided they are in a safe neighborhood.
A small child (2-5) years in age would probably not be very happy to wake up alone in a car.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 05-13-2015, 12:04 AM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic
32,849 posts, read 36,161,804 times
Reputation: 43635
Quote:
Originally Posted by msulinski View Post
You can get carried away with the what ifs, but you can always play it the other way. What if you brought him inside and the store got robbed? He would have been better off in the car alone. You can't make your decisions based on random unlikely what if scenarios.
And all that jazz. When my son was three, I put him in his bed to take a nap because he was tired and cranky. I fell asleep on the couch for a while. When I woke up, he was gone. Gone! He wasn't on the property. Apparently, he'd fallen asleep for a short time, woke, left the house, crossed the street and went to see the neighbor. She came over and knocked on my door, but I was zonked and didn't hear it. I don't think there are enough or adequate words in the English language to describe what I was feeling at the time.

My three year old walked out of my house and off of my property. He did that on my watch. That wasn't going to happen a second time.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:



Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > New Jersey
View detailed profiles of:

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:02 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top