Would you leave a 5yo in a car alone?

[Ellerehj]

My ex partner left my 5yo DS in the car alone while he went into a shop (for Non essentials I might add) Long enough that he was crying when he returned and DS has mentioned it to me a few times and it seems it upset him. He doesn't have a great concept of time but he said he think his dad was gone around 20 minutes.
Do you think this is okay? I was completely outraged. Am I right to feel this way?

Totally unacceptable.

Yanbu. Imagine if ds had gone looking for his df...

Completely unacceptable. Anything could have happened including the police finding your son alone, the car could have caught fire ( yes, this actually happened to someone who left their child alone in a car)

A 5yr old? Not at all.
I won’t even leave mine in the car to pay for patrol. I can’t lock the door when she’s inside because of the alarm and I wouldn’t leave her in an unlocked car.

Big, fat no.

I’d be absolutely furious 😓 Anything could have happened!

20 minutes is way to long in my opinion. I'd leave my 5yo in the car on the drive if I had to go back in for a bag, or while I pay for petrol or get parking tickets etc. but never longer then a few minutes.

What was he thinking? - totally irresponsible. I would be querying whether he should be having him if this is his idea of care.

That’s awful 🙁 no I wouldn’t, that’s some epically shit parenting.

No way. If it was anything longer than the time it takes to nip into the garage shop to pay for petrol then it's in no way acceptable (also - when you go in to pay for petrol you can generally see the car from the queue!).

That is awful and clearly your DS was genuinely upset and scared.

I would be pretty livid. I have no idea what I would do about it but I would be very very angry.

I leave my 4 year old in the car if I can see the car from the shop, like paying for petrol

Absolutely not on, what's so bloody important he didn't take them.

Completely unnecessary

No, theres some horrendous stories & you tube videos on this. Its not ok

I leave my 4 year old in the car to go and pay for petrol or buy bread from the petrol station. She is more likely to get hit by a car crossing the forecourt, than the car catching fire in the 3 minutes that I'm not there.

If your husband actually was 20 minutes and the car was out of sight, then he was unreasonable. But 5 year olds, as you say, have very little idea of time passing.

Not for that length of time. Maybe if I was going to a cash point or petrol station and the child could see me the whole time

If I can see her the whole time then I leave my 4.5 year old in the car to pay for petrol. Otherwise she comes with me.
That's it.

Have you spoken to your ex dp? Was it 20 mins?

I leave my 6yo and 4yo in the car if nipping into the petrol station, and sometimes if getting one thing from a shop where I can see through the window. I lock the car with the internal alarm sensor off though. However I think 20 minutes is way too long, and I wouldn't go into a supermarket or large shop where I'm physically far away or can't see. I would say that my 6yo would say I'd been half an hour if I was 2 minutes so you need to talk to your partner about the actual circumstances.

Thanks! He went into a garden centre of all places so not a necessity at all! I was so upset and looked into how I could get full custody of my son if this is his idea of parenting. But I don't think it's enough in the eyes of the law to stop him seeing him. I tried to reason with him but he thinks I'm over reacting

@LST

Have you spoken to your ex dp? Was it 20 mins?

I asked him how long it was and his reply was that he left him for 'too long' vague as always very frustrating

If police or social services had seen this happen there would have been an investigation. Absolutely shocking.

Ellerehj wow! At least he realises he did wrong. Your poor DS.

Never ever..