petrol station dilemma

[JayTree]

Ok - I would appreciate a few thoughts on this one please.Today I was out in the car with my dd for a long journey. She yelled and screamed for ages before finally settling down for a nap. It was at this point that I realised I was almost out of petrol, miles away from home and any "pay at the pump" stations. So I pulled into one I had never used before and filled up. I then had to decide whether or not to lock the doors and leave my dd sleeping in the warm car (cold and rainy out) or wake her up and take her in with me and deal with the inevitable yelling all over again. I am amazed that I hadn?t had to think about this before now but somehow always avoided the problem one way or another. I have read so many articles about cars stolen at the pump with babies in them etc. and found it a bit of a tricky one. When I got home I talked it through with dh and was surprised to find that we disagreed strongly about the appropriate course of action. What do you do?

I leave them in the car always. Jaytree if your DH was in the same situation and did wake your dd for sure he wouldent do it again!

The child can't unlock the door if the child locks are on the doors and the chld is strapped in a car seat.

Unless toddlers really DO have elastic arms which is something I've always suspected

I always leave my daughter in the car. She likes it cos it means she gets a lolly ice, crisps etc.

Please don't give me something else to feel I'm doing badly

I always leave my 2 in the car (age 2 and 10 months). We briefly had a car that automatically enabled the alarm even if you locked it with the key rather than the zapper so you couldn't lock it with anyone in it- its something to check if you're looking at new cars.

My rule of thumb is if I can clearly see the car at all times (ie inside a petrol station paying) then I will leave ds (21 mo.) in the car for a few minutes, but absolutely make sure to lock the car. As XAusted said, it's probably safer than trying to negotiate him in and out of the car and into the petrol station.
I will never leave him in the car if I can't see the car clearly...(ie inside a corner store).

Manna, I remember the case you are talking about. It certainly made me stop and think, but I think there was a bit more to it. The children were old enough to get out of the car and it seemed that they had been left for more than a few minutes and they were not within the sight of the mother. I always had the feeling that there was more to the story than the snippets printed in the paper. It just didn't ring true. Like, how long was the mother gone. Was it really an electrical fire or was one of the children playing with a lighter? Why didn't the kids get out of the car? I wonder if anyone on mumsnet knows any more or read any follow up stories.

Soupdragon, our car has an alarm like this too, but the alarm is only set if you lock the car doors with the key fob thingy. If you put the key in the drivers door it locks all doors, but does not enable the alarm. Yours might be the same

I leave DS in the car if he's asleep and like others on here, I make sure I can see the car from the kiosk.

Although there are these tragic stories of cars bursting into flames, the likelhood is (I suspect) very slim that it would happen.

I know that some people may say that if there is any risk then we should take precautions, but I would think that we would never leave the house if we were to consider every possible scenario.

In the end, you should do what you feel comfortable doing.

I leave my two in the car as well, even though the youngest can escape from his car seat at will. I think the hassle and danger of them running around the forecourt and shop outweighs the risks.

However, I have come back to find youngest ds in the driving seat having a fiddle with the controls - nightmare!

My main fear is that he will somehow kick the handbrake so the car rolls. So, as well as locking the car I always pull the handbrake up as far as I can. And never park on a hill.

I leave both mine in the car at petrol stations and wouldn't contemplate getting them out in such a busy situation. I think the arrival of a second child would put any notions of the in and out busuness out of your husband's head - you just can't! Even if you wanted to, I doubt that the drivers in the queue behind you would wear it. As long as you can see the car, you really can't be expected to do anything else when you're on your own (as we usually are ...)

Hmm, I can't imagine how on earth a car can catch fire if the engine is off...if it could you'd be seeing parked cars burst into flames all over the place!!!

As for someone breaking into a locked car and starting the engine, in a peopled and often videod petrol station, Come off it!! There's plenty of lonely, more suitable places to steal a car.

So Manna, Bundle and fellow worriers, stop reading those Daily Mail headlines!

I've never left dd in the car - but I always have (and use) the pay at the pump option. I don't know what the laws are there, but here I would be arrested for leaving her in the car. All it takes is someone calling in my license plate. I was recently visiting my sister and two police cars pulled up in front of her house. Earlier she had ran into a store for only a minute, left her 10 yr. old and six month old in the car (locked, a/c on) and someone called in and ratted her! We were astounded! Even the police who showed up agreed it was an over reaction, but said they had to investigate anyway...was very upsetting for my ds, as she prides herself (don't we all?) on being a wonderful mother!

Jo are you in the US?

Does anyone know the law here?

Most states dont seem to have a law for leaving children unattended but as an example the state of Fla has a law that a leaving a child under 6 for more then 15 min in a turned off car is against the law but the state I live in you cant be arrested for leaving a child in a car alone. Although they did say the local and state prosecuters can file charges of endangerment in any state. It seems that most states follow the same guidelines in this area. Florida has some of the most strict laws on things.

I have never dreamed of taking mine out of the car, the fumes the busy cars dashing in and out and then of course most petrol stations these are like popping into a big supermarket. Far safer to leave them locked up in the car and try to keep an eye on them I would have thought.

I don't fill up with the children in the car that often (we only have one car and generally one of us is able to do the deed when alone) but if I do have to and of course it does happen, I never take them out of the car. Basically agree with most others here that dangers of child running loose on forecourt are surely more serious than likelihood of car bursting into flames. Don't take my eyes off the car mind you; and this is really the only time I do it, popping to shops etc always take them in.

I am in the US - in Connecticut - my sister is in New Jersey.

JayTree,

I also debated on this one for along time and I try to load petrol on my own whenever possible, but it does happen that I have to do it with dd and then I leave her in the car, lockede within sight, it's just too much of a hassle(as evryone else said) to get her out end in again)

I'd never heard of cars exploding just like this before, is it really possible????

My mother's best friend was in her car and it suddenly burst into flames, she only got out in time because she was not wearing a seatbelt (it was just before the seatbelt laws were brought in). I saw a car in a traffic jam with flames comin gout of the bonnet recently. The people in it got and moved some way away.

Just to add to the car fire issue. If any of you own a Ford Focus car which I did 6 mo ago they are recalling 1000's of them because of engine compartment fires. I loved that car but they have had so many recalls.

lil - rather patronising (?) I wouldn't read The Mail if you paid me. From an early age, my mum used to call it the daily blood (presumably because it was always baying for someones....)

A car can catch fire when stationary. A smouldering electrical fault can spark a slow burn, catch spilt oil or petrol fumes and go up. It must be rare, I admit, and usually must happen to old / dodgy cars. However, this was widely reported and did happen, I think in Slough earlier this year, and I remember clearly the interviews with neighbours etc. on the news. I agree with sofiames, however, in that it seemed like there was more involved, and that the kids had been in the car for some time. I think local gossip was that it may have been a dealers house, or something. However, the car was pictured on the news and the whole of the engine area was in cinders, suggesting an electrical fault, not a lighter. In any case, no matter what the ins & outs, how tragic for the mother concerned - could she ever forgive herself?

Lil, the Daily Mail is a term of abuse in our house. One girl in our office who reads it gets loads of stick (she claims it's only for the showbiz tat). So I don't get my ideas from that rag. I live in London and am a realist not a paranoid parent who never leaves the house. dh was mugged in our road and a woman was also mugged only a couple of weeks ago just outside our flat at 5am, on her way to work. It's no big deal to take dd out of the car when I go to pay for petrol, it may be more of an issue when no.2 arrives, but I'm sure I'll stick to what suits me.

Almost 2 years ago in California I had a big black lady threatening to kick my a** because I had left DS (14 months old) alone in a car.

We had terrible coughs, keeping us up at night, and were stopped at the only Internet cafe in town, so I could look up the Hales website and find out if cough meds were ok while breastfeeding. I didn't want to wake DS up because he was having trouble getting sleep with jetlag and was, and is still, a nightmare when woken early from naps. I had parked the car, locked it, run across the road to the cafe, where sure enough, DP had already given up trying to find the Hales website, sent DP back to car, found site & info, DP returns, I go back to car with a drink to try to keep my constant cough under control, and lady is threatening to beat me up & phone police on me.

I knew if I even tried to explain to her I'd start coughing again so just crawled in and locked the doors and waited for DP.

My mom later told me it's illegal to even leave your dog alone in the car in California, never mind a child.

ps: DP later developped pneumonia from his cough...

I used to do it in the UK, but don't think I would now.

Anything containing any kind of electric component always carries a miniscule risk of catching fire - even after unplugging a tv from the mains, the circuits take a while to cool down (dh works with electrics and has his hand down the back of a tv or computer most of the day - and these are plugged in!) but as I said the risk is so low, or we would be probably too worried to have any electrical item in our homes at all!).
What I'm trying to say is - how many of us leave our children unattended in front of the tv/video whilst we are making the dinner?
I think as long as my ds is in view at all times whilst in the car, leaving him for 2 minutes to pay the bill for petrol is not going to worry me.

I kept fire extinguishers in both my cars in la as they were both old cars. I don't keep one in my car here on the theory that it's a new car and i'm unlikely to need it. I did end up using one of the fire extinguishers in la, but it wasn't on a car fire, it was on a bbq fire in my garden and my car happened to have the closest extinguisher. I have always kept a fire extinguisher in every kitchen I've ever had. Luckily never had to use it.