The toddler, new baby, and I had a busy day today running around to between the pediatrician and Children’s Hospital. Baby E got to nap, but Jessie and I didn’t. It really was a long day. We got home with enough time to catch the last few minutes of Judge Judy before the news came on.
The lead story on the 5:00 afternoon news was a toddler left in a car in a Texas Workforce Commission parking lot. A security guard found the child before tragedy struck. The mother left the windows cracked about three inches and took an infant with her. This means she deliberately left her two-year-old in a car in triple-digit heat, not accounting for humidity. Both children were turned over to child protective services.
Last week another Dallas-area father managed to get his older children out of the car, but forgot about the toddler strapped in a car seat in the back. With temperatures again in the triple digits the child tried in vain to free herself from the seat restraints before succumbing to hyperthermia.
So far this year 39 children have died from being left in hot cars. I don’t understand it. I can’t demonize the families it’s happened to, because losing a child is trauma enough. But how do you forget your baby? We’re told to put a purse or badge, something we absolutely have to have, behind the seat where the baby is. If you don’t have the presence of mind to remember your child, how will you remember your purse?
I am a CPST, child passenger safety technician, and keep items that can become projectile in the car to a minimum. I still have mirrors so I can see the children in their rear-facing car seats. My eyes are on the children and the road. I can’t imagine forgetting. I’m sure the ones it’s happened to couldn’t imagine it either.