Sometimes it feels like being a mom means fighting a battle you just can't win. Take the Pennsylvania mom whose baby was sitting inside her vehicle in their own driveway when she got carjacked! Living smack dab in the middle of the region that got hit with a heat wave, leaving your 1-year-old in the comfort of the air-conditioning should have been the safe bet.
These are the darned if you do, darned if you don't moments that make parenting so hard. The good news here is the jerk who took off with Jennifer Ramirez' car must have realized baby Nariya was in the backseat and gotten scared.
The carjacker abandoned the car and the baby a few miles away, and the mom who had been unloading groceries from the vehicle when the whole thing went down was reunited with her little girl in less than an hour. But here's betting she will never leave the car running with her daughter inside again.
It's a sad commentary on the state of our society when you can't leave your car running in your own driveway. But this is a perfect example of the parenting Catch 22 I'm talking about.
You sit there reading all these awful stories about kids dying because they were left in hot cars -- accidentally or on purpose. And then when a mom does the exact opposite, specifically putting her baby in the coolest spot in the heat wave because she's thinking that's the smart thing to do, it still ends up hurting her family.
I've been lucky: none of the Murphy's Law moments of parenting so far have hit me like this poor mom. But that doesn't mean I haven't fallen victim to them too. We all have.
Think about that time you were "right there" when the toddling baby fell and bumped her head. You thought "being there" was enough, right? I could go on and on with this list. I am not a big "leave the car running with kids in it" person because of all the risks and the horror stories. But in your own driveway? I've done it. Now, probably not.
Have you left your child in the air conditioning in your own driveway? What has been your biggest darned if you do/darned if you don't moment?
Image via travelsofamonkey/Flickr
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Comments 75
I take baby inside where the cool air conditioner is on and then I unload the car. At the grocery store or any where I take him, he is always last right before I get in. I fear this will happen EVERYTIME I go any where with him. People are evil and they don't care who they hurt... she is very lucky he didn't just throw her out some place.
This is why I hate experts "advice" - it all conflicts and you feel guilty no matter what you do. One says don't leave them in the cart while you put groceries in your car because you're exposed to the parking lot and another car could hit the cart and your kid could be hurt. So you put them in the car while you load up but then they warn not to do that because a car jacker could drive off with them like they did with this poor women. It's like when they tell you to park in the back of the lot to get extra exercise walking to the door then they say park near a door and under a light so you don't get mugged.
I feel so sorry for the Mom and hope she doesn't blame herself. Until they're old enough to "help" even if they just carry paper towel rolls back and forth there's no easy answer to where they're safest while you load and unload.
I always get my kids in the house before groceries. I then put my kids in my oldests room to play and put a baby gate up. then unload the groceries.
We just moved to a house with a garage and driveway...but in our old place-condo upstairs unit, sometimes my toddler would just have fallen asleep and I had all the groceries to unload up the stairs, so I would leave the car on (or on cool days all the windows open) while I would make my 2-3 trips upstairs with the groceries (I could see the car the whole time from our unit) and then get her out...but this story is very scary. Yikes! Moms have it rough I tell ya! We try to do the right thing and then something like this happens....
Mmmm, I'm sorry for her, but I gotta agree, my little girl goes in the house before the groceries do, she may stand at the door crying because I'm not staying in the house, but I'd rather that over this story. And what if he hadn't gotten scared? All this bath salts crap happening, what if he'd just kept going? Or thrown her out the moving car? Something REALLY awful could've happened, I'm so glad she got this lucky, but really, take the kids in first, there's AC in the house, I would assume.
it amazes me that in this type of situation - someone still finds a way to judge. we're not talking about a bad mom here. we're not talking a mom that left her baby in the car while she went next door to have a drink or have sex with her lover. she was unloading groceries. it's not like she forgot about the baby - she was trying to keep her cool and out of harms way. it's much safer to have your child strapped in her car seat in a parked car (in the AC of course) than to leave her running around the house unsupervised. accidents happen. can we all just be grateful that sweet baby is okay?
sweet baby jesus, the judging that goes on between mothers drives me INSANE.
OH, and LOL at the lady who said " For all the people saying "take the baby in first" you've obviously never had a child who was finally sleeping and moving him/her would wake them up wanting to be held. Holding baby and taking in the groceries is not an easy task."
Really? REALLY?! I'd rather my child have to wake up long enough to take her in and put her in her crib if it's that time, than be taken in some situation like this, good lord. I'll take the crying over worrying if she'll live, ANY day and EVERY day. Not to mention, if these kids are anything like my kid, there's no way in hell you're getting them outta the carseat without waking them up ANYWAY, may as well just take them in first, whats the few seconds it takes to get things in the house, going to change as far as the kid sleeping?