tragic baby accident needs a solution

[mutepointe]

i just heard that another baby was left in a car and tragically died. can someone not invent something to stop this from happening? something like matching bracelets for parents and babies that if they are separated by more than 10/20/30 feet or whatever setting that can be chosen, that the bracelet wails when the parent and the baby separates

[djm]

I have always thought you could get rid of all sorts of problems by forcing people to require a license to have children. A test for basic intelligence would be mandatory.

djm

[Innocent Bystander]

I have always thought you could get rid of all sorts of problems by forcing people to require a license to have children. A test for basic intelligence would be mandatory.

djm

Yes, the existing tests are quite the other way.

[chrisoff]

i just heard that another baby was left in a car and tragically died. can someone not invent something to stop this from happening? something like matching bracelets for parents and babies that if they are separated by more than 10/20/30 feet or whatever setting that can be chosen, that the bracelet wails when the parent and the baby separates

But they'd have to remember to wear the bracelets, much like they have to remember not leave a child in a hot car in the first place. Hell they shouldn't be leaving small children unattended anyway, never mind the hot car.

[Lambchop]

I think we made it a criminal offense to leave an unattended child in a car. My impression is the problem has diminished somewhat. They don't get away with "Oh, I didn't know" anymore.

If you did it here, anyone nearby would begin screaming. If that didn't work, they'd just whip out the jack and smash a window. It only takes a few minutes in the sun here for disaster to occur, pretty much regardless of the season, so there's no point in being polite.

Most people here, including store managers, are so attuned to the problem that they dial 911 first and look for the parents later. They WANT the police, EMS, and a hook & ladder truck there when mummy shows up.

I keep one of those nifty auto glass hammers in my car, just in case.

[Dale]

I keep one of those nifty auto glass hammers in my car, just in case.

Me too.

[Jack]

I have always thought you could get rid of all sorts of problems by forcing people to require a license to have children. A test for basic intelligence would be mandatory.

djm

The ACLU would never allow that to happen.

[chas]

Last time it happened around here, it was a respectable father whose wife was out of town. They had a bunch of kids (somewhere between 6 and 13 IIRC), and he got back from the supermarket with about 5 or 6 of the kids, and the baby just got left behind -- he thought one of the teenagers had gotten it, the teenagers thought he had. It was a neighborhood of detached houses, I suspect the Suburban or whatever had darkened windows, so no neighbors noticed or anything. He was charged with and convicted of manslaughter and spent or is spending about three years in jail.

[sarcasm]Gee, I'll bet the kids are better off for having their father in jail, and he'll be reformed in there.[/sarcasm]

Y'know, sometimes sh*t just happens. There's a difference between that and a previous case in which a woman left her kid in the car for an hour or two in a parking low while she got her hair and nails done. I don't see any links to a story, so I don't know what kind of thing mute is talking about in this thread.

[Mitch]

yep ... there's bears in them thar woods.

No matter what gizmos and devices, ungents and mirracle cures we invent, the bears just keep on coming back.

It always seems retrograde to penalise folks for things that contain their own penalty. People are usually pre-programed to protect children - if the program breaks down, then I'd say that re-programming would work better than penalization, perhaps that is the true role of grief, but then - just think of the incarceration industry - mustn't threaten any livelyhoods! Accordingly - if we made it illegal to breathe then we'd all have guaranteed jobs as warders! Am I my brother's keeper? Or his jailer?

Bears are the grief bringers. They reprogram us. Sadness is a color too - grey rainbows might become bland when the novelty fades.

[Chuck_Clark]

Too many years breeding and showing dogs here. Something like this always angers me - I propose a spay/neuter program for all adolescents who don't pass a battery of psychological and personality tests demonstrating their fitness as parents.

They'll be happier in the long run.

[jim stone]

hi chuck!

[Denny]

Oh Chuck!!!

they's gonna find that somewhat upsetting.

[gonzo914]

I cannot imagine how, even at my most sleep deprived, I could have left one of my kids in the car. That's just something that responsible and caring parents do not do. It is, in every respect, inexcusable. Those who have baked their kids in the car are either so self-absorbed or so negligent that I don't have a problem with locking their asses up and taking away any other kids they might have.

[mutepointe]

at the moment, the parents aren't the folks that are concerning me, that's a separate problem. it's the babies that are concerning me. let's refocus folks.

[Doug_Tipple]

Leaving a child alone in a hot car is an obvious and universally agreed-upon example of child abuse. However, there are other ways that parents abuse the rights of their children by the parents' behavior. Smoking in a car with a child or talking on a cell phone in a car with a child while driving on a busy freeway are two other less-obvious but potentially lethal ways that parents often abuse children by placing them in dangerous situations. Denying children the opportunity for health care is a example of child abuse where we all must accept part of the blame.