leaving my 2yo in the car...

[Itsjustafleshwound]

Genuiney baffled - my stroller is a total PITA to use - I carried my son to the car, put him in his seat and made sure he was settled, then headed off to pay for the parking (no queues) not far away and in eyesight ... got back to my car to be shouted at by a man who called me irresponsible and stupid for leaving my son alone in the car ...

If I had taken my son to the pay point, I would have to have put him down and, knowing him, he would have tried to run off and got in the path of cars getting out of the garage..

Is this really irresponsible on my part??

YANBU. Similarly, I think my children are safer strapped into their car seats where I can see them while I pay for my petrol, than they would be if I started to herd them about a busy petrol station forecourt.

It is possible that the man thought you had left your child in the car to go shopping and was unaware you had only left ds for a few minutes to get the ticket.

I once called the police because I saw three hysterical children locked in a car on a main road. They were all under 3, and the alarm was going off. The grandmother had gone shopping, leaving the kids, and did not come back for over 20 minutes. Possibly longer - I was there for 20 minutes, heaven knows how long she had been away.

Did you say anything to him?

What else did he say?

Maybe he thought you'd left your child a long time to go shop?

yanbu in this case but he was!

yanbu

get used to be judged by arseholes and grow as thick a skin as you can

YANBU - far more likely to be hit by a car than any of the other horrors that can happen.

I do this, mind we just had a horrible incident near here of a car thief driving off with a baby in the back of the car. All ended ok but has made me far more wary.

YANBU. I did that very thing this afternoon in Sainsburys.

I park literally right in front of the pay machine so that I can wave at DS while I get the ticket and he can see me properly. If I can't park directly in front I take him with me wriggling, which is a pain.

YANBU at all. I would leave my dd for a v short time to pay for a car park ticket too, so as long as she is in eye-shot and nearby. I really don't see the problem with doing this. I would be more nervous of me having to let go of her hand whilst rummaging for change with the possibility of her running off into the path of traffic.

I also leave her when I have unloaded shopping and then return the trolley to a trolley bay. I'm never gone more than 20 seconds and I ALWAYS lock the door.

I never leave her in any other situation though, not even paying for fuel.

See I wouldn't leave him while returning a trolley, because I wouldn't be in his eyeshot or vice versa, unless parked next to the trolley bay.

I wouldn't leave him to pay for petrol either but that's mostly because he would panic and be upset, not because I think anything is going to happen to him. I get petrol when I'm with DH as well or when I'm in the car by myself.

I leave ds in the car to pay for car parking tickets, unless we have to get the pushcahir out anyway, then i'll put him in, walk to ticket machine and back.

YANBU

YANBU,
I leave my DC in the car when i use pay and display car parks, i normally lock it which means the alarms start going off. I leave DC in the car when i go to the petrol station too. I dont see there being much point in dragging a 3 month old and a 3 yr old into the shop just to handover some money quick.