cjones

A similar sentiment could be applied to your comment.

bats

We should start with education on the correct use of capitals.

orly

This worked out pretty well.

Thanks for helping guys.

bats

Nice recovery.

orly

Precisely what my original post was about. It's time for a recovery. The world has become filled with idiots who think it's a perfectly reasonable plan to leave children (and usually animals) in sealed cars when it's 30 or 40 degrees. These aren't honest mistakes or temporary lapses of judgement.

Rather than worry about what that means you played right into the "hurr durr non-proper nouns capitalised!" angle. Depressing stuff.

I'm now off to enjoy my weekend with family and friends (and our pets) safe in the knowledge none of us will end up half baked in a car because of stupidity. Feels good man.

bats

What a load of bilge, you said you approve of eugenics and didn't like being called out on it. I doubt very much you used those caps deliberately. Off you toddle and enjoy your weekend as a superior being. What will you do for fun? Count the number of people you would cull?

Dorothy

How do you know it wasn't an honest mistake or a temporary lack of judgement? Are you psychic? You know for a fact what was in the mind of the person?

I know myself, when my daughter was very young (maybe 3 or 4 months) being exhausted. One day I was in the post office and had a strange feeling like I was forgetting something. That something was my sleeping infant in her carseat locked in the back of the car. It was an honest mistake, and thankfully for her and me, I remembered quickly and she was fine.

It's very easy to judge someone else's actions. But unless you were there you don't know that the person acted with any malice or was reckless. It's quite possible that they simply forgot that the baby was sleeping in the back seat of their car. I am not making excuses for them, but I really think that unless you know all the circumstances you (general you, not you you) should be a little less quick to judge.

Almost Canadian

What difference does it make? Leaving a young child in a vehicle in such temperatures is never appropriate. That, in and of itself, justifies the comment made.

dbd33

I don't think it does. I'm not an enthusiastic supporter of child boiling but a eugenic method of avoidance depends on knowing the ethnicity of people who leave their children to boil in cars and then a willingness to eliminate them, perhaps by shoving them into a gas chamber. I think the idea fails, firstly because the owners of children fried in cars don't share an ethnicity and secondly because killing all the people of a particular race or religion is no longer the done thing.

I accept that, should the parents turn out to be Irish, my objection to the argument for eugenics is undermimed.

MillieF

I hold my hand up to moments of forgetfulness, most parents know that by the time you get a kid to an independent age, it's been more thanks to good luck, and you thank the powers that be on a daily basis. However, when I have looked after someone else's child I have been ultra responsible, what you do with your own child is one thing, but you care for someone else's like it was bone china. This is tragic, and I am sure not deliberate, but the end result is that every facet of this family's life has been ripped apart. How can any of them ever forget what has happened and not be defined by it?

Almost Canadian

The post I quoted didn't make reference to eugenics, I accept that earlier ones did. As I said, there is no justification for anyone leaving a young child in a hot car.

Greenhill

We went to pick up a handful of groceries yesterday at the biggest Sobeys downtown. On the way in I noticed a little white Toyota with two unattended kids inside of it, I'd guess the one buckled in the child seat in the back was probably 2 years old and the one playing in the front passenger seat probably around 5. The driver's window was wide open.

We were out of the store in around 10 minutes and noticed the kids were still unattended in the Toyota. My OH stayed nearby, keeping an eye on them while I sought someone who could take responsibility. The NSLC was close so I went in and asked for a manager - told them what was going on and they basically told me there was nothing they could do and I should look for a manager in Sobey's. By the time I tracked him down (and he was concerned) it was probably 20 minutes after we first noticed the car/kids. Their mother had returned just before we got to the car and (for a couple of reasons) we let her get away with it unchallenged.

We were surprised that we appeared to be the only people who noticed and were concerned about the situation (it was a very busy parking lot).

It might not be illegal and, without any event, neglectful but, surely, leaving a 5 year old in charge of a 2 year old in an open car in public is asking for trouble?

Jingsamichty

In general, children don't spontaneously expire, and in general, car parks aren't full of predatory paedophiles. I assume a 2 year old child would be securely strapped into a car-seat, and a 5 year old child is almost certainly capable of understanding "just stay here for 5 minutes, we're just going to a shop, we'lll be back in a minute."

Children are wrapped up in cotton wool, and it's ruining them.

mandymoochops

They certainly do do something about it Greenhill. My sis in law (when her son was about 2) had to nip to the drug store. One where you can park your vehicle right outside and see it pretty much all the time. Kid was asleep, buckled into car seat, not a hot day, so she ran into the store grabbed whatever she needed and went home. In her own words "I was in there for no longer than 2 minutes" (And THIS sister in law in particular certainly wouldn't leave kid in car for hours let alone more than 5 mins - she's a worrier as it is).

An hour later, there's a knock on the door and it's the RCMP. Someone had taken down her license plate and reported her.

Can't remember whether she got a fine / warning / dressing down or whatever but they DO take it seriously (in Edmonton at least).

orly

Happy to discuss it at length with you.