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?
> 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.
I'm a parent of 4 kids, 2 of whom have passed the age of four. I don't recall if it's a law or just a regulation I have to follow as a certified foster parent, but either way I'm not allowed to leave any child under 6 unattended in a car.
If it weren't for that rule, then I absolutely would have left one of my kids in a car unattended for 5 minutes, but not the other.
The one I would not have got antsy fairly easily. Even they could probably have been trusted for less than 10 minutes, I wouldn't be willing to take that risk. The other, I have no doubt would have stayed in the car for a half-hour.
More recently I did leave one of them in the car, in the shade, with the windows cracked on a 65 degree day. She was 7 at the time. Someone did report me to the cops, but I said "She's 7, was in the shade and I was gone for less than 10 minutes" and never heard anything from then again.
No, because of the risk of someone calling the police. And I don't have children and stories like this weigh against any decision to have children. We're to the point of arresting parents for not parenting the way the media wants them to, logic and rational risk assessment be damned. Do you really think you were never left in the car alone as a child?
The author was right - the most irresponsible thing she did that day was to drive with her child in the car.
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?