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Perhaps we should flag down the cops for people who take their kids into the store instead: http://www.azfamily.com/news/Child-run-over-killed-in-parking-lot-o

• tptacek 12y ago
  These are all articles that are making my point for me. Leaving a four year old alone in a parked car in a parking lot is leaving a four year old alone in a parking lot.
  • skwirl 12y ago
    From the very first article: "Sgt. Steve Martos said the child's mother was loading her purchases into her car when Jose darted between vehicles and into the driving lane. The driver did not see the child and ran him over." If she had left the child in the car, this wouldn't have happened. The point isn't that you should always leave your child in the car - the point is that our assessment of risk is terrible, and the risk of leaving a child in a car on a mild weather day has not been proven to be more risky than taking them into the store.
    • tptacek 12y ago
      You cannot leave a four year old alone in a car and trust that they will not get out. Nobody's four year old is trustworthy; they are not biologically capable of being trustworthy at that age. Meanwhile, a four year old escorted through a parking lot with their parent is at least somewhat visible. A four year old alone in a parking lot is invisible.
      • skwirl 12y ago
        You can't have your child out of your sight for a single instant without a chance of them getting hurt. When you are asleep they could easily leave the house and get run over in the street. I'm generally a fan of your comments but this time I don't see your point at all.
        • tptacek 12y ago
          And I am not advocating for a parenting strategy that demands total attention to your children 60 minutes out of 24 hours a day. I'm simply saying that one time you can't let a child out of your sight is when they're in a parking lot. Let's make this simpler: would you leave your four year old alone in a parked car for 5 minutes while you ran into a store?
          • notdonspaulding 12y ago
            > would you leave your four year old alone in a parked car for 5 minutes while you ran into a store? Yes. No, not really, but yes if I lived in a different time and day (a time and day I wish we did live in). As another commenter pointed out, the biggest reason many of us don't do this these days is purely the fear of running into ridiculous situations as described in this article. It really seems odd that you're avoiding the biggest data-driven argument that's raised in the article and has already been put directly to you. Namely, why do you assume that it's safer to take the child with you? Parents make tradeoffs regarding safety, risk, convenience, happiness, cost, temperament, health, development, etc. ALL. THE. FREAKING. TIME. It's great that "society" cares about how parents do their jobs. It's not so great that society mandates in great detail how that job should be done. Every parent, every child, every situation, every tradeoff is different. Until it's proven that they're no good at it, let's leave that work to the people who signed up for it.