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I don't find that it advocates leaving toddlers alone in parked cars at all. She states in multiple places that it was a bad decision. What it does advocate is
by imgabe 12y ago
I don't find that it advocates leaving toddlers alone in parked cars at all. She states in multiple places that it was a bad decision. What it does advocate is that this shouldn't require legal action. The response in terms of police manpower and court time is wildly out of proportion to the risk.
- tptacek 12y agoSkip forward to the part where she's conversing with her attorney. The attorney sums the situation up as a lapse in judgement. She responds with anger towards the bystander who called her child --- alone in a car --- in to the police. Or reread the section where she interviews Skenazy. The Skenazy section overtly argues that leaving kids alone in parked cars is a negligible risk. No, think you're wrong. I think this is a piece that says, in effect, that people should chill the hell out about leaving four year olds alone in parked cars.
- imgabe 12y agoIn all the articles you linked above, not one involved a child being left alone in a car and escaping, then getting hit in the parking lot. So, yes, until there's a documented case of that actually happening I would consider the risk to be negligible. However, if you arrest the parent, saddle them with months of legal fees, potentially take their child away and put them into a foster care system, that's not without risks to the child as well. It's not like having your parents impoverished and potentially put in jail does wonders for a child's future either. That has a far higher probability of happening than your so far completely hypothetical scenario of the child escaping from the car in five minutes and wandering around the parking lot until getting hit.
- tptacek 12y agoThat's because parents don't generally leave four year olds alone in cars, not because four year olds left alone in cars generally do just fine.