Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

AIBU?

AIBU to not know about babies and petrol stations?

174 replies

Beth2511 · 23/05/2015 00:23

Since DD was born I've always avoided filling up on my own so not to have this problem but need to figure it out. Say I have 6 month DD in car when I need petrol, when it comes to paying do I leave her? Do I take her with me?

Baffles me.

OP posts:

Report

Roomba · 23/05/2015 08:32

I just used to lock the doors and go in and pay. Most petrol stations are designed so that you can see your car whilst queueing , probably due to the days before CCTV to ensure they saw if anyone drove off without paying.

My kids were used to this so never cried while I went in, as they could usually see me and knew I would be back in a minute.

I'm a bit deaf and very clumsy so I was way more likely to slip on some petrol whilst carrying them in, or be run over by someone I hadn't heard coming, than have my locked car stolen with two loud kids in the back.

Squeakycleansparkle · 23/05/2015 08:32

When my DC1 was 3, he was at my rural village nursery. It's on a cul de sac in a housing estate and you'd be hard pressed to find it. One horrible snowy winter's night, I had to pick him up, and I had my then 2 year old twins in the car. The nursery door is narrowed by a big finger guard and won't take a double pram. Twin1 was asleep, twin2 awake, so I ran in to get DS1, carrying twin1. I was away from the car for about 3 mins, and was parked RIGHT outside the front door.
I came out to find a woman standing by the car shouting "whose child is this?"
I explained it was my car and she said "you shouldn't have left him, you shouldn't have left him."
I wasn't so much annoyed as fascinated, and I kept asking her what she thought I should have done. I really wanted to know how she thought I shoukd have done it. And of course she didn't have an answer beyond phoning nursery and getting them to bring DS1 out. I pointed out that no one gets a signal because we're so remote, but she just kept repeating "you shouldn't have left him."
Sometimes if you're outnumbered you have to take calculated risks.

pictish · 23/05/2015 08:32

MissDuke never even saw your previous post(s) - this is an old done-to-death debate on MN. The Great Petrol Station Debate comes up repeatedly and regularly.
My post wasn't directed at anyone on this thread but at the topic in general.

TapDancingMollusc · 23/05/2015 08:41

All the petrol stations around here have pay at pump so it doesn't apply.

It's the same sort of question to me as "baby asleep in cot and you need to hang the washing out..." - my neighbour when my daughter was little, would wake her baby to put it in it's car seat which she carried into the garden so she knew she was safe. I thought that over protective but didn't ever say anything but then my daughter slept for England and nothing would wake her until she wanted to wake.

Part of parenting. Making decisions on the best thing to do and always agonising and worrying. Even when said daughter is 19 and off to Leeds by herself today to stay with friends. That's 2 train changes including crossing London. She's fine - I'm the one with a knot in my tummy.

Mehitabel6 · 23/05/2015 08:52

It is part of parenting. You have to risk assess. MN amazes me in that so many can't do it. They see no danger on a busy forecourt but lots in a parked car on a busy forecourt.
It is often the lesser of the 2 evils. They can't always be avoided. I was a single parent with a baby, sometimes I had to get petrol if he was with me and lots of petrol stations don't have the facility to pay at the pump- they certainly didn't when mine were little.

Waxlyrically · 23/05/2015 08:52

Mine are teenagers now but when they were little I always left them in the car while paying. I hadn't even realised it was an issue as kiosks are nearby and it takes so little time to pay. What surprises me is that there is a clear divide, yet I have genuinely never seen anyone take small children in with them while they pay(UK). Is it a different counties/cultural thing? Can understand there may be other issues in hotter climates for example.

pictish · 23/05/2015 08:52

As an asides I used to have a meddlesome neighbour who would come out all aghast and ask, "Where's ds?!" if she saw me hanging washing out without him. "Have you left him alone?!"
Yet if I did have him out with me, she'd carp about hats and coats and stones being sharp and so on.
Just. Fuck. Off.

Supersoft · 23/05/2015 08:54

I've always left mine in the car without a second thought. Why would I want the hassle of taking them? I have never seen a child being taking out of a car on a petrol forecourt, but have seen plenty left in cars. I swear this is a debate people only have on mn.

flyinghighinthesky · 23/05/2015 08:56

Used to leave mine in car until my mother put the fear of God into me by telling me it was safer to take her in because what if there was a fire and I couldn't get to her. Realise this is totally illogical but take her in every time now.

Mehitabel6 · 23/05/2015 08:57

I think MN is a parallel universe! If it was an issue we would see children being carried out to pay with regularity- I , like many others, have never seen it happen.

TapDancingMollusc · 23/05/2015 08:58

Pictish yep you just can't win sometimes!

Mehitabel6 · 23/05/2015 08:58

I have never seen a fire in a car on a forecourt either.

DustyCropHopper · 23/05/2015 08:58

I have always left mine in the car. I think they are safer there than being traipse acros the forecourt, especially when you have more than one child.

Mehitabel6 · 23/05/2015 09:00

I think mothers must be supernatural! They never think of the house or car setting on fire if they are in them, but it will immediately happen the moment they leave the child.

Mehitabel6 · 23/05/2015 09:01

I would love to know how many people support getting out with more than one child.

Goatlington · 23/05/2015 09:01

Why on EARTH would you take FOUR children in to pay?? Are they all specatcualrly badly behaved/lethal/Houdinis? In which case I'd sort the behaviour!

Mehitabel6 · 23/05/2015 09:02

How do you get all 4 children to meekly agree to get out and all hold hands and keep close to you?

Mehitabel6 · 23/05/2015 09:04

I think it is a luxury choice for those with one baby.

Nightboattocairo · 23/05/2015 09:04

Always leave in the car. Never seen anyone take children out, in a busy forecourt what a pain to make people wait while you faff putting kids back who needn't have been taken out in the first place

Goatlington · 23/05/2015 09:06

Not to mention slowing up everyone behind you who wants to get to the pump while you fart and faff about strapping numerous kids into seats

pictish · 23/05/2015 09:07

I know! I'd be ffs-ing under my breath.

00100001 · 23/05/2015 09:08

left them in the car - didn't even lock the door most of the time.

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Email address

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

Goatlington · 23/05/2015 09:11

Only on MN are there peaodophiles lurking around petrol station forecourts. Only on MN do cars spontaneously combust on petrol station forecourts. Not to mention car jackers , people fainting and no one knowing a child was in the car, escapee toddlers letting off handbrakes......gosh the list is endless!

MissDuke · 23/05/2015 09:15

sanfairyanne and Pictish Thanks for the clarification, I was getting very wound up there

pictish · 23/05/2015 09:16

eee mumsnet is a strange place at times...

This thread is pro-leaving the kids, but previous threads have been rather more pro-taking. It just depends who's posting.

But yes... the idea that paedophiles are prowling Britain's Shell stations...heh.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.