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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What do you do when you get petrol?

97 replies

kayzisbroody · 25/02/2008 18:42

Not an AIBU, I know.

I was at the petrol station yesterday and someone filled up her car and went to pay leaving a baby who looked about 2 months old asleep in the car alone.
An old woman(why is it always old women) complained to the manager.
His response was "each to ones own".

I dont drive but I am having lessons and have just bought a car and I'm now wondering what I would do.

What do you do? or what would you do?

OP posts:
iamdingdong · 25/02/2008 20:56

have always left them in the locked car - no way I could have coped with getting baby or toddler twins out of the car, across the forecourt, find my purse, hold it as well as them, pay and get back again without losing either my mind or one of them!

RedJools · 25/02/2008 20:58

leave them in the car, locked!! The thought of getting 3 kids out of car seats and humphing them across the forecourt makes me break out in a cold sweat! Why would a car suddenly burst into flames?

gomez · 25/02/2008 20:59

In the car but never lock as I would like easy access in the event of an accident.

I am fairly sure the incidence of car theft from garage forcourt with 1/2/3 kids in the back in my neck of the woods is fairly low.

As are accidents on forecourts with running children/rolling cars etc.

So I opt for the easy option.

IamTheSpeedingHam · 25/02/2008 20:59

i think once old enough the kids should be out of the car washing the windows and filling the tyres with air.

if i am still waiting in a queue when they have finished - they should start on someone elses car

WORK ETHIC

these 2 month olds - any excuse lazy fecks

MsHighwater · 25/02/2008 21:06

Always leave dd in the car. The places I go to fill up (at least those where it would be just me and dd in the car) are all either pay at pump or pumps can be seen from shop. Never for a nanosecond has it occurred to me to do otherwise.

shaqpe · 26/02/2008 00:20

always leave ds in car - always fill up at local petrol station.. pump v visible!!! never go when busy as don't like to wait.

my dilemma is cash points!!!!!
and using a public loo - possible or not????

PortAndLemon · 26/02/2008 00:26

Normally fill up when don't have DS in car, or when do have DH in car as well, and/or at "pay at pump" station (which is the cheapest in my area anyway). If it came to it (which I think it has once or twice) would leave sleeping DC in car but take awake DC in with me.

eidsvold · 26/02/2008 03:15

no pay at the pump around where I live in Aus so - go to a particular petrol station where if I have the dds with me I can leave them in the car as the door into pay is right beside the car. I am no more than ten steps away from them.

Before that - if i just have the baby take her with me, if I have the three dds - far safer to leave them in the car with the doors locked and the windows down a bit than to take them across a forecourt - carrying dd3, making dd2 hold my skirt/trousers and trying to stop dd1 who has sn from running off.

sandcastles · 26/02/2008 05:29

Same as Eids, as in no pay at pump.

I always take dd in with me, but mainly because it is a very busy station & I can be in the Q for quite a while & it V hot v quickly in the cars here.

Oh & I use this partictular staion as I get a reduced rate per $, so not going elsewhere, before anyone suggests it!

Original poster
kayzisbroody · 26/02/2008 07:31

I think I'll leave ds in the car but only if I am with dh or its quiet and I can see the car.

OP posts:
madamy · 26/02/2008 07:39

There's no way I'm carting a 9mth, 2 and 4 yr old across a forecourt when I can see the car from the garage shop!

sunnylabsmum · 26/02/2008 08:01

Always left DD in car, as able to pay quicker and there's always a queue behind....feel others would be happier for me to pay quickly than see me taking DD with me.

Now living in Cyprus where joy of joy they have pump attendants who fill up the car and sort out the money so we can just all sit in the car and chat whilst the deed is done...bliss!!

kslatts · 26/02/2008 08:09

I have always left mine in the car with the doors locked, I can always see the car while paying.

davidtennantsmistress · 26/02/2008 08:22

leave in the car - even do it if he falls asleep in there good job I can drive to the top of drive at mums or to the front door at nans to watch him.

I prefer pay at the pump, don't normally lock the car anyhow.

in my PFB stage I would unstrap him even if I was running to the cash point and was parked in front of it - now, i'm more relaxed, as long as the car is locked.

to be fair if I couldn't see my car at all times then I wouldn't leave him anywhere.

davidtennantsmistress · 26/02/2008 08:24

(cash points which I can park 10 steps from ie outside tescos DS stays in the car, cashpoints where I have to walk 200 meters or so across a slight precient he comes wiht me)

needmorecoffee · 26/02/2008 08:27

it takes 2 seconds to break into a car.

QuintessentialShadow · 26/02/2008 08:27

I take my two. The risk of something happen is miniscule, but nevertheless, dont want to take the risk in case something happens.

Two bins were burnt to cinders nearby, what if some idiot decided to put something alight at my local station?

Kaboom! Rather have them with me...

LadyMuck · 26/02/2008 08:47

Having worked at Head Office of one of the larger petrol retailers, the most common incidents that takes place in garage forecourt (next to people driving off and not paying) is a slow moving collision. And it is in these collisions where children rather than adults are most likely to get hurt when they are out of a car (esp when their head is at bumper level to a 4x4). In other countries drivers are asked to leave their children in the car without keys. Ultimately it depends on your individual set of risks - if you have an SN 10yo child who is able to hotwire a car in 10 seconds then you might make a different decision to someone with a 2 month old baby. Which is why the UK retailers won't display such signs.

Given the amount of CCTV, petrol retail stations are less often a target of child abduction and auto theft than you might think. And the risk of a car imploding (which I think did happen once over 20 years or so ago, but not in this country) is more related to the mechanics of the car, than its location. Ie if you are drivng a very old car which is in a poor state of maintenance, then leaving your child whilst you pay for petrol is the least of your concerns.

It is interesting how often this question comes up though? I wonder whether we are being falsely put into a place where we perceive that the way to minimise risk to to have our children always in immediate contact?

LadyMuck · 26/02/2008 08:48

Sorry - ...the most common incident that takes place..

yurt1 · 26/02/2008 08:53

The only time I saw someone getting really cross what a cashier at a filling station who was watching a child of about 5 get out and help his dad fill the car with petrol. She said that she had told him before that his son was at head height with the petrol cap and the petrol could splash into his eyes. I think she had a go at him and told him to leave his son in the car.

Wisteria · 26/02/2008 08:57

I really can't believe someone complained!

I always left mine in car, locked or unlocked - probably unlocked knowing me but I could always see the car.

Eulalia · 26/02/2008 09:00

Interesting LadyMuck. I don't think a child has ever been snatched from a petrol station.

We are in the same position, small town with no pay pumps. I leave ds age 2 in car as there is often a queue and struggling with a two year old in a queue is a nightmare.

Don't lock the car either as if in the unlikely event he could get out of his seat then the door locks spring open automatically as soon as you open the front doors from the inside.

My dilemma is when I have the older children, leave them in the car or take them with me. either way it is hard as ds1 has SN and he is likely to shout in the shop, run around or fight with dd. Usually do petrol filling when they are at school but can be unexpected circumstances like yesterday when they were sent home from school as heating broken down and I had to get fuel.

I think we do worry unless we can see them for every second of the day and most of those worries are unfounded.

readytopop · 26/02/2008 09:30

I agree with shaqpe - the bigger dilemma is using public loos, esp if the nearest is grotty with tiny cubicles.

I usually have a 3yr old and a 2yr old with me coupled with a bump, and trying to decide whether to use the grotty nearer one or the nice big disabled (sorry to people with disabilities, but with 2 small kids, a bump about to pop, and a pushchair, well, in mitigation we do awlays leave it clean...) in the council offices further away awlays depends on the level of desperation.

dal21 · 26/02/2008 09:45

only read OP

i have a pay at pump one i use. but equally have left DS in car (locked and in full view the whole time) on occasion.

think that is far preferable to carrying them across fume filled petrol station surely? have no idea why people have an issue with this one.

littlepinkpixie · 26/02/2008 09:46

I leave my children in the car when i pay. The risk of an accident caused by me manouvering 3 children across the forecourt seems higher that the risk of leaving them in the car (though i always watch the car the whole time I'm in the kiosk).