Parents, Wake Up (an off topic post)

This post is off the topic of food and farms, but it's my blog so I can write about whatever I want. Every summer, I read stories that break my heart about children left in hot cars, where they roast--literally--and die.

For a long time, I--like many others--vilified these parents as evil at worst and bad parents at best. But then I read this article from the Washington Post and it changed my perspective. I saw how even the most devoted of parents could become distracted and forgetful. Especially when taking the kids to school or daycare wasn't a normal part of their routine. These parents had made a mistake, and don't we all make mistakes? Can't we all look at something we've done and say, there but by the grace of god do I still have my child? These parents made a terrible, awful mistake and paid the ultimate price for it. 

But this summer, my perspective is shifting again. There have been four recent incidents of kids left in cars in my state alone in the past two weeks. Thankfully they weren't all fatal, but they weren't all accidents either. Some of these parents intentionally left their kids in the car, and were called out on it. 

I can't say that I've never left my kids alone in the car. I have. But I've done it carefully and with close consideration of where we were at the time. I will only leave them alone in the car if I'm in a rural location where I know no one is likely to approach the car, and I can see the car at all times. I also let the baby take naps in the car. As every parent knows nothing puts the baby to sleep like riding the car. And not all babies make the transfer into the house successfully. So I park my car in the shade, roll down the windows, open the back doors and the trunk and let him sleep, checking on him every few minutes. Even with those safeguards, he usually wakes up fairly sweaty. 

My point is I'm not immune to leaving the kids in the car and walking away, but the difference is I've never forgotten that my children were in the car. The phenomenon of hot kids in cars is one that scares the pants off me and for that reason, I tend to be extra vigilant about these things. 

So back to the main point. This seems to be happening more than ever, or at least I seem to be hearing about it more and more. There is no longer any excuse. With headlines every week about babies in hot cars, kids dying in hot cars, parents being arrested for leaving kids in hot cars, there is no excuse for forgetting your child is in the car. 

People suggest doing things like leaving your purse or briefcase in the backseat, taking off a shoe and leaving it in the backseat, writing a note on on the window in dry erase marker or even using decals as a reminder. If that's what you need to do to remember your kid is in the car, then do it! Or make it a habit to look in the backseat every time you leave the car. 

The modern age is distracting, there is no doubt about that. But we cannot use technology as a distraction as an excuse for forgetting what's most important to us. If your phone is too much of a distraction, then turn it off leave it in that purse or briefcase in the backseat and don't get it until you get out of the car. 

What's more important? Answering that last text? Making an important phone call? Or getting your kid where he or she needs to be safely?

Parents, this job is hard. But stop making excuses and make your kids your priority. No more kids should die this way.