Ever Forget Your Baby in the Car?

I can say that it will NEVER happen again. I am just so happy that the windows were cracked and it was a cool evening. I will not be so judgemental any longer because you don't ever know what situation you may find yourself in when you have so much going on.

I googled this because today I left my four year old in the car for about ten minutes and I totally forgot he was asleep in the back seat. I don't know if it bothers me more that I left him in the car, or that I FORGOT he was asleep in the back seat. As I walked to the car and saw him sitting up in the booster seat, it was apparent that he had been crying, the feeling I have is awful. He was so scared. All the "what if's" keep playing back in my head. I am over stressed at work, just buried one grandfather, and another one is in the hospital, in school for my master's and in the middle of back to school shopping for the kids....my mind is clearly all over the place. I am grateful to God that he is okay, but still bent out of shape that I totally FORGOT that he was in the car. Where did I think he was? So glad the Lord takes care of fools and babies.....and I have learned my lesson. I will be more conscious of what I am doing because nothing is more important than the safety of our children. I STILL feel like crap. We are lucky. I always said "oh my how could someone do that"..never say never!

I can say it will never happen again. Good thing that the windows were cracked and it was a cool evening. I will also not be so judgemental.

I would never forget my kids in the car. Sometimes I even think they are there when indeed they are at home with Daddy.

Oh my gosh! My mom actually found a crying baby in the car parked next to her at the grocery store! She called 911, they came and had to break into the car to get the baby out. It was 95 degrees out that day! They got her out and waited for the "mother" to get back to her car. which was 2 hours later.......She then comes out with a toddler and a cart piled up to there with stuff. Then she realized she had forgotten her baby in the car and starts bawling her eyes out. Turns out this baby was only a few months old. She had been in the car for 45 min. and had severe dehydration and went into seizures from the heat. We don't know what happened after, but I hope Child Protective Services took her kids and put her in jail for being such an idiot.

Unthinkable.

I am going to comment without even reading the article. THERE IS ABSOLUTLEY NO EXCUSE FOR FORGETTING YOUR CHILD IS IN THE CAR!!!

I once got in the car to leave & realized I had left my dtr buckled in her car seat in the living room! Other than that I have never forgotten my kids in the car, & I am also VERY forgetful.

I have never forgotten my kids in the car. Leave them in the car to quickly run in the house and pee that I have done, or to throw the milk in the fridge but that is about it. I have forgotten that I had left them at the babysitters and freaked out when they were not in the car. But I have not forgotten them in the car.

It is, sadly, a day and age when both parent must work, just to be able to HAVE children to care for. Really, just to care for themselves! The economy dictates this; few parents of beloved little ones CHOOSE to give up their days with their child.
Instead of beating them up verbally, I applaud them for doing what they need to do to support the family AND to most often be excellent parents.
To those of you who may have sadly experienced this and have stumbled onto some of the other comments, God Bless you. God knows your hearts - not us. I cannot imagine anything more painful than to spend your lifetime continually recalling the day your baby died in your car. May God grant you sweet peace.

I think it's sad that a few of the parents on here posted comments about how it takes a horrible, careless parent to forget their child in the back seat, but then they go on to comment about how it's OK to leave their young children in the car while they "go to the store real fast". I'm not excusing a parent for forgetting their child in the back seat, but leaving a 6 year old and a 3 month old in the car while they run their errands is just as neglectful. So what if you leave the A/C on? What if someone decides to take the car with your kids in it? What if the 3 month old has an emergency? A 6 year old is not able to handle that. I have children, so I know it can be hard to haul them out of the car for just a short trip into the store, but you do what you have to do. Don't judge parents for something until you walk in their shoes. Stop acting so self righteous and realize that this is something that could happen to anyone.

Thank you Holly! I am 6 months pregnant and I have been struggling with the guilt of having to place my child in daycare. My husband and I were working to save up, buy house and pay down debt. We were (say the very least) flabbergasted when we found I was expecting. We were still a year and half off before we were ready to start trying for a baby, but we are trying to make the best of it. It is maddening to think that the "Zachy's Moms" of the world think that every working mother works because she wants to.

But for the story, I can't imagine being in a situation where I would forget that I put my child in my car. But I have to agree with the person who said how unbelievable horrid someone would feel knowing they killed their own child.

To Zachy's Mom in Cali..... you are blessed that you are able to be home with your child or children. Is it safe for me to assume you are a stay at home Mom, raising your children? I lived in California most of my life and I know how very very expensive it is to live there.
I am curious, though, how would you enforce a 'requirement' that 'one person stay home with the children'? Would there be governmental assistance with that?
TY for your response.

To all of you who say "I could NEVER forget my beloved child in a car" - think about this: that's EXACTLY what people who have left their kids in a car said before they did it. You are living with a false sense of security.

That said, the tips in this article are pretty dumb. No one would remember to leave a sticky note on their dash every time the kid's in the car and the stuffed toy will eventually get snatched up by the kid.

The key is to always reminding yourself that your car is a killing machine. Don't just hop in and take off, treat it like an airplane and go through a quick checklist every time you get in or out (whether the kids are with you or not) It only takes a few seconds and it could save hundreds of lives a year.

Just a quick glance around is all it takes: tires, mirrors, seatbelts, check the back seat, and check for anything right in front or behind the car. Then do it all again when you get out. It takes no more than 2 or 3 seconds, but you need to get yourself in the habit of doing it every time you get in or out of a car.

To the poster "ME" : If you need to work and can't afford to stay at home with your kids, then you are in no position to have children. Ive been married for 5 years and we are not having children until we are completely financially stable, enough to where I can stay at home and cater my life to the baby. When I was a child I was babysat from newborn until I was 8 because my mom and dad had to work to be able to support my siblings and I. I was physically abused everyday, locked into a closet and undernourished by my so called babysitter. I'm 28 and still remember every detail. All this damage could've been avoided if my parents were financially stable enough for my mom to stay at home and take care of her children.

Ok I am not a crackhead, druggie, airhead or any other of the forementioned insults being hurled around so freely here. I am a teacher as a matter of fact. And one day when my son was 4 mo old, I took a friends child to preschool as a favor. She is in a wheelchair and I was so preoccupied with getting her chair, getting her into it and getting her into school, that I forgot my son was in the car. I was gone probably less than 10 minutes, but felt horrible when I got back to the car and realized it! Sometimes real things happen! As for people who intentionally leave their kids in the car with the air on or whatever, that is wore! What if your 6 year old (or 3 or?) got in the front seat and put your car into gear and hut themselves or someone else? Intentionally leaving your child in the car is just as bad as doing it by mistake. Any harm that comes to a child intentionally or not is a tradgedy.

People who leave their children in the car and "forget" should NEVER have children and should be in prison.

I am disturbed by this article. When my parents were growing up you never heard of kids dying in cars, why..... because moms stayed at home and raised their kids. They knew their job and did it well. I think it should be a requirement of parents today that one person stay home with the children.

I'm guilty of forgetting my one year old step-son in the car once. My youngest child is 5 so for the past year in a half she has been able to unbuckle her self and get out of the car on her own so I got out of the habit of going into the backseat for her unless I'm buckling her in. So when we had one of our first visits with my then 8 month old step-son I forgot about him after a shopping trip with him and my three girls. So as usual, I got out of the car, my girls got out and we started unloading groceries and bringing them into the house after we finished I realized that I left him the car. I felt awful I never did that with my own kids. We have more regularly so now its habit again for me to go into the back seat.

I'm VERY forgetful... I'm constantly losing my keys, my phone, my hair brush.... However, I would never, EVER forget about a child in the car. Not my own, not someone else's.. Strategy #5 If you need a stuffed animal or a sticky note to remember your baby is in the back seat don't have children.