The overheated kid in the car story comes up every summer and makes me want to cry.
But for all that I feel for these parents, the advice the TV crews keep dredging up on how NOT to forget your kids smacks of some pretty sucky parenting.
The reporter on the TV news this week actually suggested putting your purse or cell phone in the backseat next to your kids (not her fault -- the suggestion came from an expert).
Not surprisingly this was in the same broadcast where a bunch of folks on the street admitted they are NEVER without their cell phones.
So what does this say about American parents?
That we'll remember our cell phones ... but not our flesh and blood kids?
That doesn't point to a devastating accident in the cases of kids accidentally left in the car by a caregiver -- it points to parents who are just plain pathetic.
Repeat after me: If your cell phone is weighing heavier on your mind than your kid, it's time to disconnect.
Fortunately, the numbers don't bear out to there being that many awful parents.
Statistics show that 91 percent of Americans are mobile subscribers, but less than 470 kids have died from hyperthermia in the past 12 years.
That's 460-some kids too many, but that number also represents kids who have decided to PLAY in a car without their parents' knowledge and have gotten stuck in there.
I'll say it again -- I feel for these families. This is a terrible tragedy. But that doesn't excuse giving out crappy advice ... or crappy parenting as a whole.
Do you think this is a good tip or evidence of a bigger problem?
Image via coolmikeol/Flickr
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Comments 17
I know my opinion is unpopular, but I will never understand accidentally leaving your child in the car. I've never even come close... not even once. I am incredibly forgetful and misplace lots of things... but not my kids.
I don't think it really matters what it says about American parents or crappy parenting if it saves even 1 child's life.
I agree that if you can save even one kid by throwing out advice, even if it seems silly, it's worth having it on the news. I recently talked about an article where they said parents who switch off dropping their kids off at day care or pre-school have forgotten they had their child in their car, went to work, parked the car and left a sleeping baby in the backseat. That doesn't sound like horrible parenting, it sounds like frazzled working parents and an ill-timed nap for the baby. It made me take inventory every single day (even though my kids do not nap that early in the day) since my husband and I swap drop-off duties.
It's easier to forget your cell phone than your kids (I hope) but distractions are a daily part of our overly busy lives. It just takes a perfect storm of sleeping baby, change in schedule and a lot on your mind to make a deadly mistake.
I'm with Rana - I have never even come close to forgetting either of my children (a 4 year old and a 4 month old) in the car.
I'm with Rana, I leave my cell phone a little too often at home or in my truck, but I have never once 'forgotten' either of my children. I live in SW Florida and here about kids dying after being left in vehicles a little too often (just happened several months ago down the street from my house), I just don't understand how it can happen. Although, if it means one kid will be saved by their parents putting their cellphone in the backseat, I don't have a problem with it, I do think it's a sucky way to parent!
Whenever I hear these horrific stories of people leaving their kids in the car my heart actually goes out to the parent. I'm sure it's not a case of just not caring about your kid and forgetting him(her) in the car. There has to be elements of extreme stress, sleep deprivation, or something else going on. Not that it excuses leaving the child, but still.
I guess that advice has merit if it saves one kid, but it does make my stomach turn to think people are so attached to their phones and devices that they'd sooner leave a child in the car than a phone.
Oh, and plus side of the cellphone with the kid? No idiotic parents texting while driving!
I think that it is a good tip & evidence of a bigger problem. I understand where you were trying to go with the cell phone usage vs. vehicle related hyperthermia deaths. However, the 2 don’t have any correlation. There are an infinite amount of variables that influence distraction, phones are just one. Evidence of a bigger problem, YES! Society expects so much from parents, but the human brain is only capable of so much. No sleep, stress, fatigue, change of routine, work, kids, pay bills, what's for dinner, do it all again tomorrow..no freakin wonder our brains can't keep up, it NEVER ends. I know this issue is difficult to comprehend. I have been working to prevent these tragedies for about 4 yrs, doing data collection, educ. etc...let me know tell you, it happens to doting parents. If you are one of those parents who truly believes it can't happen to them, PLEASE read "Fatal Distraction", the Washington Post by Gene Weingarten. He won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing on this issue. I really do understand how hard it is to believe that we could do this to our own children, but believe me..not one of those parents who did, EVER thought they were capable of doing it either, but they did. The results were fatal, lives were damaged in ways words can't begin to describe. Please read with an open mind. I am trying to be a better parent by recognizing that I am not perfect and it could happen to me
I think it is a good idea even if you don't need the extra memory help. Particularly part time parents or sitters who are not use to looking in the back seat for the kid every time they get out of the car. I agree that if one life is saved it is worth the advice. I also agree that it is a great spot for the phone while driving. It may even help with a bigger child who accidentally is forgotten grab a nearby Samaritan and walk the child through how to get out/unlock for you. This is an accidental occurrence, no one wants to lose their child on the premise that if only they weren't so forgetful/tired/bogged down with issues/stressed. This is a case where technology may help rather than hinder a bad situation. With that said, I would gladly use any available object rather than wait ten minutes for my husband to smash the window. The back door to my van got stuck once and I tore off the panel to get to the baby. I'm just saying...
Another reason the advice was horrible: if you still forget to grab the kids, you've just locked your cell phone in the car, too. That means that you can't even call for help now.