Warning: RANT

The most awful video is going around all my mom’s facebooks and twitters and whatever-erers. This video of a mom leaving her little one in the car while grocery shopping and the child dies. There is even a Spanish version that is going around all my Costa Rican friends pages.

I’m flabbergasted. This doesn’t happen right? It can’t! No one thinks their kids are going to be ok in a car alone while they go grocery shop, right? There are awful people out there, cars malfunction, kids get caught in things, kids throw up spontaneously all the time! This can’t be…but obviously it must.

DON’T DO IT. It is selfish, and lazy, and awful. You are a good mom, don’t do this.

Same with leaving your little ones in a bath even for a moment. It doesn’t work. Kids slip and fall one million times a day. And doesn’t your mommy brain tell you that the second you slip away it is going to happen? Be oh so careful around water,  you cannot look away for a moment. The ocean, she is a strong thing. Kids drown in an instant. We all understand this, correct? THEN DON’T BE LAZY ABOUT IT.

I think as parents, good parents, we sometimes do stupid things. These two things my mind can’t even wrap around what would make them ok. But there were two times in my life that a stranger has stepped in and gave me a good mental whack. One time I was with a friend at a restaurant chatting away. The kids were looking at magazines playing around in the entry of the restaurant. Meaning you had to open one set of doors and there was this little area of magazines and vending machines before you opened another set of doors to the street. We could see them playing. BUT the main doors were being opened and shut, opened and shut. And it was on an extremely busy road. They could have escaped and ran out at any second. So these two men who were on their lunch break got up from eating, grabbed my kids hands, and brought them back to me. Not rudely but it was a mental smack for me. And one I needed. GOOD FOR THEM.

The other time was just a couple of days ago. I was sitting, playing on my phone, not paying attention. And my two year old ran out into the carpool lane. So I had some moms screaming at me to get my kids. Lesson learned, eek! During the week I am at a museum all day while other kids are at a camp. I wander around the museum and let my two year lead the way. So she will walk around sometimes looking alone but I am directly behind her. People will start to say, “Where is your….Oh look she is right there!” I just smile and say thank you. Because everyone is just trying to help and I am not going to put a bad taste in their mouth by being rude or acting annoyed. Because if I do maybe they won’t help out as much in the future and it will end up really hurting another child.

I remember one day driving down one of the main roads in Utah (Bangeter or was it Redwood) and in front of Walgreens right at the intersection of two main roads two kids were playing. They were playing on the side of these roads, running in the roads and out of the roads like it was a fun game. I yanked my mini van over, grabbed those boys’ hands, and marched into Walgreens hoping to find their mom. Their mom was right there in line and told me, “Oh I knew they were playing out there, I was just letting them play while I was shopping.” She looked a little dumstruck and I don’t know if she realized what they were doing was so awfully unsafe. I told her what they were doing in busy traffic, didn’t get all huffy puffy with her, or even chastise her. But I would think having a stranger march in with your kids in front of a line of customers would be a mental smack.

We always need to help each other out is my point. Even if the other parents snaps at us, even if it inconveniences you. Even if you aren’t the type to interfere. We need to work as a huge family that is watching out for each other’s kids.

But this leaving kids in cars and leaving kids in/around water alone, even for a second.

THAT STUFF DOESN’T NEED TO HAPPEN, EVER. DON’T DO IT. I just don’t get it.  And if you see it, you do something about it! 

 

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