Page 11 | To leave sleeping child in locked car?

Wouldyoudothisiwonder · 2022-12-04T11:05:50+00:00

Went to supermarket to get prescription for DD(2) and she fell asleep on the way. Would you lock the car and leave her sleeping while you run in? Or not?

TheTartfulLodger · 04/12/2022 16:18

Well i suppose she'll still be asleep when you get back home as well so you might as well leave her locked in the car outside your house too while you go indoors eh? I mean, chances of getting her back to sleep are up there with winning the lottery and you won't want to wake her up going back indoors...

thelobsterquadrille · 04/12/2022 16:19

SpotlessMind88 · 04/12/2022 16:02

Would you leave your purse in a locked car?

Yes, but my purse and its' contents are replaceable. A child is not.

PoseyFlump · 04/12/2022 16:57

For those of you saying you'd happily leave your children in a locked car, how long should an observer wait before calling the police? Ten minutes? Half an hour? An hour? All day? Very interested to know where your 'safe' time expires.

thelobsterquadrille · 04/12/2022 17:06

PoseyFlump · 04/12/2022 16:57

For those of you saying you'd happily leave your children in a locked car, how long should an observer wait before calling the police? Ten minutes? Half an hour? An hour? All day? Very interested to know where your 'safe' time expires.

I'd be interested in this too.

Also, if there was an emergency, would you be happy explaining to emergency services why your children were left locked in a car alone?

Notimeforaname · 04/12/2022 17:14

My sister and her husband did this with all 3 of their children. It always freaked me out and thought it was so wrong. But they and my parents say it's fine.

BesidetheseasideXxx · 04/12/2022 17:15

No and if I saw a baby alone in a car I would stand next to it and call the police after 5mins.

SpotlessMind88 · 04/12/2022 17:32

@thelobsterquadrille i WOULDN't leave my purse in a locked car. And i certainly wouldn't leave my child

Herejustforthisone · 04/12/2022 19:00

Why is a PP exaggerating and saying twenty minutes now? I clearly said I’d happily leave my sleeping child for two or three minutes while I dropped a script in to the pharmacy just inside the main door, where the P&C parking is located? Waking my poorly child up to lug them into a shop for that is not in their best interest.

If any mad twat spotted my sleeping toddler behind the tinted window (unlikely) and immediately phoned the police the second I’d left, I’d be back before they would have been connected to a police force who wouldn’t be interested in a loving mother putting her sleeping child’s comfort above some insane terror relating to a spontaneously combusting car/two year old figuring out an electric handbrake which can only de deactivated when the ignition is on and the keys (which would be in my pocket) are inside the car/some maniac somehow reaching high enough speeds in a car park and managing to hit a car parked round the corner by the P&C spaces.

I also never take my child out if I have to pay for fuel because it’s fucking lunacy to carry them/lead them across a forecourt of moving cars.

The hysteria and hyperbole has been very entertaining. Classic MN on a Sunday.

Whiskeypowers · 04/12/2022 19:21

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thelobsterquadrille · 04/12/2022 19:21

SpotlessMind88 · 04/12/2022 17:32

@thelobsterquadrille i WOULDN't leave my purse in a locked car. And i certainly wouldn't leave my child

Okay? I was just answering the question, lol.

A stolen purse is an inconvenience but it's replaceable. It's hardly comparable to a something happening to a child.

Dillydollydingdong · 04/12/2022 19:23

Never wake a sleeping child.

londonrach · 04/12/2022 19:25

Of course not. No parent would. I'm shocked you even think that's ok. Yabu and hoping a reverse. Awful awful parent behaviour

Herejustforthisone · 04/12/2022 19:29

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Did you read my earlier posts?

Go to pharmacy.
Drop in script.
“It’ll be ten minutes, have you got a bit of shopping to do?”
Go back to car.
Wait ten minutes.
Go back to pick up bag.
Go back to car.
Child unlikely to be dead or on fire.
Go home.

Why are you calling me names again? It’s not in the spirit of MN etc. I’m sorry you’re triggered by my posts (to the point of deliberately exaggerating what I’m saying and have said) but just stop reading if you’re struggling with it.

Whiskeypowers · 04/12/2022 19:36

Herejustforthisone · 04/12/2022 19:29

Did you read my earlier posts?

Go to pharmacy.
Drop in script.
“It’ll be ten minutes, have you got a bit of shopping to do?”
Go back to car.
Wait ten minutes.
Go back to pick up bag.
Go back to car.
Child unlikely to be dead or on fire.
Go home.

Why are you calling me names again? It’s not in the spirit of MN etc. I’m sorry you’re triggered by my posts (to the point of deliberately exaggerating what I’m saying and have said) but just stop reading if you’re struggling with it.

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You are trying to justify leaving a very young child unattended in a car end of.

it doesn’t wash with me whether you come back and go off again, you are electing on at least two occasions to leave them unsupervised alone in a car out of your sight for a period of time over which you have no control over either in the “just dropping off a prescription if there is a queue which there almost always is on a weekend and definitely when yous re waiting to collect one

hope that helps

ljs22 · 04/12/2022 19:45

I had the very same dilemma with a sleeping baby (DD was only 12 months at the time). She was unwell with a viral infection and had fallen asleep in the car on route to the pharmacy. I rang them and explained and they were so lovely and brought my prescription out to me. Never in a million years did it cross my mind to leave her.

CaptainCastillo · 04/12/2022 19:54

First I thought "This person must be joking" but then I read all these comments saying Its totally fine. I'm flabbergasted!

Theres a reason why the police gets Involved In these situations! Its totally not ok and everyone who thinks It Is should not have kids as they obviously don't know how to keep them safe. Safety above everything!

Devoutspoken · 04/12/2022 20:05

It's all about risk assessment, there are far more dangerous scenarios parents put their kids through

Herejustforthisone · 04/12/2022 20:18

Whiskeypowers · 04/12/2022 19:36

You are trying to justify leaving a very young child unattended in a car end of.

it doesn’t wash with me whether you come back and go off again, you are electing on at least two occasions to leave them unsupervised alone in a car out of your sight for a period of time over which you have no control over either in the “just dropping off a prescription if there is a queue which there almost always is on a weekend and definitely when yous re waiting to collect one

hope that helps

Show quote history

Yeah I would do that. I don’t see a sleeping toddler in a secure car for two minutes as being at any great and real risk. And they’d be a lot more comfortable than if I haul them out of a car seat and force them inside to stand around while they make up the meds.

I truly don’t see what this huge danger is that you see looming for the couple of minutes he’s unattended while I go in the first time and couple of minutes while I go in the second time? They just collect everyone’s scripts in a one-er in the pharmacy and advise you to come back. During the wait I sit in the car with the sleeping child. I truly don’t see why that’s so outrageous. My kid is a cracking sleeper. He used to nap outside unattended in his pram as a newborn. It’s healthy and fresh. The worst thing that happened was a small bird landed on him once.

Devoutspoken · 04/12/2022 20:24

I dont understand why people are getting so angry about it

Whiskeypowers · 04/12/2022 20:50

Herejustforthisone · 04/12/2022 20:18

Yeah I would do that. I don’t see a sleeping toddler in a secure car for two minutes as being at any great and real risk. And they’d be a lot more comfortable than if I haul them out of a car seat and force them inside to stand around while they make up the meds.

I truly don’t see what this huge danger is that you see looming for the couple of minutes he’s unattended while I go in the first time and couple of minutes while I go in the second time? They just collect everyone’s scripts in a one-er in the pharmacy and advise you to come back. During the wait I sit in the car with the sleeping child. I truly don’t see why that’s so outrageous. My kid is a cracking sleeper. He used to nap outside unattended in his pram as a newborn. It’s healthy and fresh. The worst thing that happened was a small bird landed on him once.

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my first child is a cracking sleeper the other less so. That has so little to do with the discussion it’s almost making me me embarrassed for you especially coupled with your “comfortable “ analogies

since when does a child’s propensity to sleep negate your making responsible choices ?

Brainfogmcfogface · 04/12/2022 20:55

If I saw a child in a car alone I’m absolutely calling the police and the parents can deal with the consequences.

Herejustforthisone · 04/12/2022 21:08

Whiskeypowers · 04/12/2022 20:50

my first child is a cracking sleeper the other less so. That has so little to do with the discussion it’s almost making me me embarrassed for you especially coupled with your “comfortable “ analogies

since when does a child’s propensity to sleep negate your making responsible choices ?

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What are you embarrassed for? A poorly child who is likely in the deep sleep associated with a febrile state is going to strongly object to being lifted out of a comfortable seat which is holding them in the comfortable and relieving state of sleep, to be carried, probably crying and aware of feeling shit again, into a fluorescent strip-lit supermarket with pharmacy to either have to walk or being carried to the pharmacy queue, and to then stand around, probably still crying and aware of feeling shit, while their parent waits for their prescription to be made up, so they don’t catch on fire or get pinched by a thief.

I don’t know what’s difficult about my referring to my child’s comfort and choosing to leave him sleeping for two minutes tops, rejoining him and then leaving him for another two minutes tops while I pick up the bag of prepped meds, say the first line of my address, and return to my car and restfully sleeping child.

I’m not leaving him in a car, with a rabid dog for company and a machete to defend himself, while I drink tequila and play pool.

Shall we leave this here? You’re a bit cross, are trying to slate me and don’t appear to want to read the actual words I have written and have called me names in posts which appear to have been deleted and it’s a waste of your time as I really don’t care. I’ve been bed bound today and jolly bored so I’ve partaken lengthily in a thread.

Whiskeypowers · 04/12/2022 21:20

Herejustforthisone · 04/12/2022 21:08

What are you embarrassed for? A poorly child who is likely in the deep sleep associated with a febrile state is going to strongly object to being lifted out of a comfortable seat which is holding them in the comfortable and relieving state of sleep, to be carried, probably crying and aware of feeling shit again, into a fluorescent strip-lit supermarket with pharmacy to either have to walk or being carried to the pharmacy queue, and to then stand around, probably still crying and aware of feeling shit, while their parent waits for their prescription to be made up, so they don’t catch on fire or get pinched by a thief.

I don’t know what’s difficult about my referring to my child’s comfort and choosing to leave him sleeping for two minutes tops, rejoining him and then leaving him for another two minutes tops while I pick up the bag of prepped meds, say the first line of my address, and return to my car and restfully sleeping child.

I’m not leaving him in a car, with a rabid dog for company and a machete to defend himself, while I drink tequila and play pool.

Shall we leave this here? You’re a bit cross, are trying to slate me and don’t appear to want to read the actual words I have written and have called me names in posts which appear to have been deleted and it’s a waste of your time as I really don’t care. I’ve been bed bound today and jolly bored so I’ve partaken lengthily in a thread.

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Well if you want to stop it then stop trying to explain away and justify a disastrous and indefensible thought process as the parent of a very young child
don’t expect me to just go ”oh alright” and leave it at that because I won’t.

Ohyoubadkitten · 04/12/2022 21:33

Supermarket car parks tend to be dangerous places - I would've thought it was far more risky to leave a child in a car for a few minutes than carry a drowsy/sleeping child across the car park.

I still wouldn't leave them in the car though. My worry would be them waking and getting upset. Or a vigilant Mumsnetter worried about cars on fire or cars plunging into a canal calling the police.

Herejustforthisone · 04/12/2022 21:40

Whiskeypowers · 04/12/2022 21:20

Well if you want to stop it then stop trying to explain away and justify a disastrous and indefensible thought process as the parent of a very young child
don’t expect me to just go ”oh alright” and leave it at that because I won’t.

Show quote history

Ok. You’ve obviously got time on your hands too, I see. Ok. I’m not justifying anything, just telling you what I would do (have done) and why. You having a problem with that is your problem, not mine. What is disastrous and indefensible about it? It’s a very short amount of time. Were he awake, I’d take him with me as he likes to sit in the trolley and hold the scanner.

You have to assess risk and come to a logical conclusion. You haven’t really explained what you think is likely to happen inside the two minutes when asleep. Do you ever leave your children alone? Are you a parent who drags her children to the toilet with her when she wants a poo? Do you sit awake and watch them when they sleep at night in case of….something? Do you allow them any independence to play, learn to climb, fall and where their own physical boundaries are in order to learn their own assessments of risk? Or is it all too dangerous in your eyes?