Parents Should Be Allowed To Let Children In Car Seats Ride Up Front

[Mimosa]

Ever since states (or is it federal law?) made people have to place children in car seats in the back seats of autos, there are more incidents of parents and relatives forgetting the babies. Back when the car seats could be strapped in up front there weren't these annual waves of reports of babies being forgotten and dying.

Here's the latest one from the Atlanta area:

http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/five-month-old-baby-958337.html?cxtype=rss_news

Kennesaw police are investigating the death of a five-month-old girl who died after being left in a parked car for over five hours Wednesday.

A family member apparently forgot the child was asleep in a car seat when she went to work at the Ivy Hall Day School on Tuscan Heights Boulevard Wednesday afternoon, Kennesaw police spokesman Scott Luther said.

"Several hours later, the baby was found unresponsive inside the car and after attempts to revive her, she was pronounced deceased at the incident location," Luther said.

The high temperature in Kennesaw Wednesday afternoon was 90 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

[LynneSin]

1. That's just bad parenting

seriously!

[Mimosa]

4. Lynne Sin, many good parents have had tragic memory lapses.

I'll go find a recent study. These tragedies have happened to the BEST parents as well as the not so good.

BTW, I don't think mothers should HAVE to return to work so soon after a child is born. But if they won't they'll lose jobs.

[Mimosa]

10. 10 Ways to Remember Your Child is In the Car

I was researching and found a site with helpful hints.

http://www.mommywords.com/2010/07/forgetting-your-child-in-the-car-could-kill-10-tips-to-remember/

[msanthrope]

13. After the incident I described, I put a pair of baby socks on my keyring, and always put my

pocketbook in the backseat.

[Mimosa]

15. "Fatal Distraction: Tragic Mistake. Is Leaving Child in Car a Crime?"

This article was famous a couple of years ago. It contains research about how the human memory occasionally disfunctions, leading to these tragedies. Of course these tragedies aren't the same as the incidents where a parent leaves a child in a car while she goes to a casino, or shopping.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022701549.html

Excerpt:

Two decades ago, this was relatively rare. But in the early 1990s, car-safety experts declared that passenger-side front airbags could kill children, and they recommended that child seats be moved to the back of the car; then, for even more safety for the very young, that the baby seats be pivoted to face the rear. If few foresaw the tragic consequence of the lessened visibility of the child . . . well, who can blame them? What kind of person forgets a baby?

The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the last 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. An accountant. A soldier. A paralegal. An electrician. A Protestant clergyman. A rabbinical student. A nurse. A construction worker. An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist.

Last year it happened three times in one day, the worst day so far in the worst year so far in a phenomenon that gives no sign of abating.

The facts in each case differ a little, but always there is the terrible moment when the parent realizes what he or she has done, often through a phone call from a spouse or caregiver. This is followed by a frantic sprint to the car. What awaits there is the worst thing in the world.

[msanthrope]

6. No, it's not--it's pretty easy to do---

I've told this story before.

After a night of colic-crying, I took my daughter out driving in the car, in hopes of getting her to sleep. I drove the same loop in a park, over and over again. For 20 minutes. That's a really, long time, driving the same stretch of road.

No sound from the backseat. I drove home, got out of the car, and having not slept for over 24 hours, stumbled into my house to the bathroom to pee. Mid-pee, I realized I had left my kid in the car.

So there I was, crying hysterically, soaked with pee, running back to my car. It's really easy to do.

Now, granted, my kid was probably in the car, alone, for 3 minutes, tops, but I can see how it happens for longer.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. There should be a way to devise an alarm

that is connected somehow to the car seat and that goes off when the driver's door opens.

[NNN0LHI]

3. Anyone who would forget a baby in a car doesn't have enough sense to be around children

Not even for short periods of time.

Don

[msanthrope]

7. I did it because of sleep deprivation. See above. Sure, it was only minutes,

but if you get sleep deprived, it is VERY easy to do.

[hlthe2b]

5. There is the issue of the deadly air bags, however.... n/t

[gkhouston]

8. If there were a LATCH system in the front passenger seat, hooking

something into it could disable the air bag on that side. :shrug:

[msanthrope]

11. True--but lots of parents don't install with the LATCH, even if their car has it.

I had my car retrofitted with the LATCH, but some cars don't have it, and some parents don't use it...silly, I know.

[gkhouston]

12. Ours doesn't, but I'm surprised people wouldn't use it, if it were available. n/t

[msanthrope]

16. Some people don't know HOW to use it. Most state troopers or firehouses will be glad to show you,

though.

[RC]

9. Yes, air bags. A "safety device" that will kill you or your loved ones.

[seaglass]

14. That was one of the biggest fears I had when my kids were babies.

When I was pregnant and after when my kids were young I felt very scatter brained - like there were too many things to do and so many things I did were by rote. Zombie mom.

Kind of like when you get in your car and space out about where you are going and you "wake up" to find you are taking a familiar route but not the one you intended to take.

I would guess I'm not the only mom who felt this way.

In any case, I remember one day I was driving somewhere with my 2 yo and infant. I remembered putting the car seat with my son in it on the lawn while I got my daughter in the car but couldn't remember putting my son and car seat in the car. I freaked out, looked in the rear view mirror and saw he was sitting there. Then I'd drive another few miles and the thought of leaving him on the lawn would strike me again, I'd panic and couldn't remember if I actually checked for him, so I'd look in the rear view mirror again.

I guess what I am saying is that I can understand this happening and do not automatically believe that it is just bad parents that forget their kids. :-(

And yes, having your child in the front seat would reduce/eliminate kids being left in cars.

[Mimosa]

17. I don't have a child now, but I can imagine how easy it would be to forget.

Our memories can fail us, studies have shown:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022701549.html

Excerpt:

Two decades ago, this was relatively rare. But in the early 1990s, car-safety experts declared that passenger-side front airbags could kill children, and they recommended that child seats be moved to the back of the car; then, for even more safety for the very young, that the baby seats be pivoted to face the rear. If few foresaw the tragic consequence of the lessened visibility of the child . . . well, who can blame them? What kind of person forgets a baby?

The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the last 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. An accountant. A soldier. A paralegal. An electrician. A Protestant clergyman. A rabbinical student. A nurse. A construction worker. An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist.

Last year it happened three times in one day, the worst day so far in the worst year so far in a phenomenon that gives no sign of abating.

The facts in each case differ a little, but always there is the terrible moment when the parent realizes what he or she has done, often through a phone call from a spouse or caregiver. This is followed by a frantic sprint to the car. What awaits there is the worst thing in the world.