Anyone ever left their kids.....

[rainbowface]

Has anyone ever left their kids for a few mins in the car (unlocked) whilst they nip into doctor to pick up presciption etc thinking you will only be a second?? Did this today left 3 kids age 8,4 and 5months, it was taking too long to be served so went back out after about 2 or 3 mins to find 8 yr old wandering towards me in tears at being left!! Felt awful, but ended up shouting at him for leaving the other 2 - like he's responsible for them or something -honestly been feeling bad about it but just thought id be in and out of there. I was just being lazy I suppose, has anyone else done this?

Rainbowface - most people have done it, they are lying if they say they haven't! It is no different than leaving them to go and pay for fuel (and I don't know anybody who takes their 3 DC into garage to pay for fuel) so don't beat yourself up about it. You probably won't leave them again in a hurry though!

Before the Madeleine McCann abduction, I left my children in a hotel room in Cornwall. Not for long, I was only 200 mtres away. But I did it.

A friend's mum left him when he was a baby in a pram outside a shop whilst she popped in to do the grocery shopping (this was in 70's) She didn't actually remember until several hours later, after getting home and having a cuppa. He was still there and no harm done luckily.
As a baby my friend didn't remember anything, but for older kids a few minutes alone can feel like an eternity. There in lies the problem. Also their judgement in a difficult situation will not be as adult as you'd expect.

Never done it, but like all of us I am human and I have made mistakes. Don't beat yourself up too much.

I do it all the time but we live in a little village in the middle of nowhere, the kids stay in the car outside the village shop and there have been occasions that the baby has been asleep and I have run into school to drop DS1 off.

Yes i have, but i lock the door and it's got childlocks. he did get out once when I was picking something up from a shop I'd ordered. took longer than i thought as assistant was with someone, kept popping my head out the door and waving, but he got bored, climbed over to passenger seat and came into the shop. Luckily he was on the kerbside. Got a serious talking to. I don't dwell on it, what could have happened, just learnt from it. I know though it's so much easier than getting everyone out of the car when you can just pop in. Of course I would think most people do it at service stations.

As above, I have left my two year old more times than I'd like to admit but always with doors locked and childlocks on and more often than not the dog is in with him. Also live in quiet Devon so maybe a little different if I lived somewhere more cityish / busier.

I have done it, but only when I can see the car. I wouldn't lock it. A friend told me an awful story about a car that caught fire, and the children were locked in and passers by couldn't open it.

Actually feel quite relieved now, saw there were 6 new posts and was bracing myself for being had a go at. Thanks for the comments - you are right though I probably wont do it in a hurry. I know that if there had been one or 2 kids in the car I would have taken them out and would never leave the baby on her own. Was just being lazy thinking easier to leave them all together for a sec. Fell better to know that others would poss have done this too perhaps. I think the comment about a few minutes alone for an older child can seem a long time is prob true. Just been feeling a bit crap because the other week almost left the baby in the supermarket as the older 2 were nagging for this and that and momentarily forgot I had the pram with me. Started to walk off luckily dh came round the corner and said wheres the pram?? She was about 10 feet away and absolutley fine but I had forgotten her!What if husband hadt appeared at that time?

Pear Tart. That happened to me too in 2006 though! When my son was about 7 wks old, I went for icecream in a gelateria with my DD and another friend and her two kids. I was so used to us being a gang of 5 that we all walked back to our table to eat our icecreams. About 20 minutes and some coffees later, one of the staff was wheeling the buggy away from the pay area shouting "whose baby is this?" that I remembered him. I was mortified. Felt like Cilla Battersby or something, all the people in the gelateria looking at me like I was an unfit mother.

I personally have not left DD on her own. She was nearly 6 before I have left her to pay for petrol and then only if it is an empty station and I know that I can see the car from the door.

But I only have one child to deal with so much easier for me to take her than if you have mrore children I would imagine.

I have left them on the front of my house in the car while I popped in for purse. Also in car at petrol station. Think that's about it.

i do leave my 3 DCs in car (8,7,2) and make sure all doors are locked.
To make oyu feel better children can come to harm no matter how careful we are...when DS was a baby i lived in a flat that opened onto a hill and came home one day, unlocked the door but couldnt get in cos of all the letters, i put the brake on DSs buggy and pushed the door open but had to go inside to pick up letters so i could get buggy in. When i went to get DS he was being wheeled back to me...apparently the brake had failed on buggy and he had gone whizzing into the road. Luckily it was a quiet highstreet with not much traffic otherwise i dont like to think what could have happened.

My aunt accidentally left all three of her children on the pavement, drove off, thought 'they're awfully quiet' and looked round to find no kids. She got back to find all three sitting on the curb, with oldest (about 7) reassuring youngest (about 2) that mummy would be back soon. Middle child was about four or five, I think. This was in the mid eighties. Anyway, they're all perfectly okay now, although they do enjoy having a dig at their mum about it.

My mum's friend left her baby in his pram outside Tescos in the mid 70's and got a bus home, before she realised. Went back, he was still there, fast asleep. Can you imagine that now!!

I can remember my mam used to leave my brother in his pram outside shops and outside in the back yard (gate unlocked) for ages.
This was in the early 80's and I think everyone did it.

I've left ds in the car outside bank and found unexpected queue. However ds calmly joined me having climbed out of front door to avoid child lock and then leaving door wide open!

i have done when paying for petrol but have locked the car. our chemist has a "drive through" section aimed at disabled and parents. its the best idea ever

It's such a hassle to get 3 children out of the car, especially when at least one of them doesn't walk. I do take my 3 children out to pay for petrol, much to the anoyance of the people in the car behind when I have to strap them back in.

I do leave DS1 (9) and DD (2) in the car if she is asleep, while a pick up DS2 form the after school club. Dragging a tried 4 yo, and and a sleeping toddler, whilst wearing work heals in the rain, is just too much to much to manage sometimes. So flame me.

I work on customer service in a large supermarket. One day a woman came to complain that her car had been scratched on car park. She thought deliberately because she had parked in a disabled bay though she wasn't disabled. She had been in shop arguing for about 15mins when the police turned up. Some had reported her children abandoned because she left them in car when she came in to complain!!!.Not her day I think.