i couldn't believe it

[Ljt09863]

so this wasn't actually a customer anywhere. well, could hav ebeen a customer who had just left my store. but anyways...

as i was walking away from work today, i was looking acros the street. i saw a lady who leaning into her car over the drivers side seat. i also notice that behind the car, is a little girl, probably around 4, just playing in the snow that was behind the car on the curb. as im watching, im thinking,' hey, she should be watching her kid. this isn't a safe neighborhood and that girl could run out in the street and get hit...'

i then watch the lady get into her car and shut the door, leaving the little girl out there. so now im thinking,'ok...if that wasn't her daughter, then who is the mother and where is she? maybe its that one lady over there...shes standing a bit far away, but maybe...'

the woman takes off, and i keep walking....until i hear a bloodcurdling scream and look to see the little girl running after the car, screaming,"MOMMY!MOMMY!" this poor little girl was tripping over snow, trying to cahse the car down, and crying and screaming for her mother over and over.all i could do was just stop, and stare with my mouth hanging open. there were two women walking in front of me. they stopped and were asking,"oh my god, did that woman leave her kid behind?" the one lady across the street that i had thought might be the mother, jumped into the street, and starts waving her arms, trying to get the attention of the mother.

the woman in the car goes about a block and a half, and then slams on her breaks. she throws the carinto reverse, and drives back. once she gets to where her daugher was, i stated walking again. but i hear her get out of the car screaming,"i thought she was in the car! i thought she got in!"

how the hell can you have a child that looks no older than four, and not make sure they are strapped in before taking off???? even if you did think she got in, you would think to check to make sure she put on her seat belt.... i couldn't believe it.

the screams that little girl made were horrible. she was so scared.


(and please don't be mad at me if it kind of reminded me of scary movie 3, without the kid actually getting hit....)

[chainedbarista]

what the hell? i thought she was in? there are laws that clearly state that children have to be in a booster seat (in that age/weight category) and she was expecting the girl to do it herself?

she need not breed again, she just can't handle the responsibilty of child care and saftey...

[Gurndigarn]

FWIW, many parents will make this mistake, or one like it, at some point. Nobody's perfect. And most kids get over it. I don't remember the time my parents left me behind, any more, even though they still do.

[Rahmota]

I'm sorry maybe I'm a bit overprotective of my kids (better to be over than under in that regards) but I do a headcount when we load the vehicles everytime and when they where in the car seat/booster seat category I didnt leave them to their own devices like this lady did. even if they could buckle in its still a parent's duty to make sure the child is in and safe.

I'll agree that occasionally circumstances will get out of control to the point where the child can get seperated from the parent but the one in the OP was not one of those. I'm glad the parent didnt back up over their child. That would have turned a merely bad situation into a downright tragedy.

[Misanthropical]

I'm sorry, but I have never forgotten my children or thought they were in the car when they weren't, there is no excuse for that.

[Ryu]

ive been forgotten and thought i was in the car before when the car took off

i wasnt a kid at the time however, i was in college
and it wasnt my parents driving haha

that must have been scary for the kid, even more so if they didnt know where they were which is very likely

[trunks2k]

FWIW, many parents will make this mistake, or one like it, at some point. Nobody's perfect. And most kids get over it. I don't remember the time my parents left me behind, any more, even though they still do.

My parents have done stuff like that a couple times to me and my siblings. Before I could walk, I got left in the car accidentally while the tires were getting changed. My mom had my brother and sister with her (ages 4 and 8 at the time). She dropped off the car then walked across the parking lot to the store while the tires were getting changed. She got halfway across the lot before she realized that I wasn't with them. When she went to get me, the car was about five feet in the air and they were in the middle of taking the wheels off.

My sister got left on top of the stairs while in he car seat thing. My mom got about half a block before realizing she was missing her.

I got left at home alone once when I was about 8 because my mom was in a town softball league and had gone to the game, my dad left for the game shortly after. I was quietly playing some where and they each thought that I was with the other one.

[protege]

I got lost at the beach when I was little....

At the time, we didn't have an umbrella, just a blanket. All I remember was going down to the water...and not being able to find my mother But rather than freak out, I simply sat on the breaker (huge boulders on the beach to break up the waves) and waited.

What had happened, was that my mother thought I was with her friend, and vice versa. The other thing that happened...was I somehow got a bit further down than I thought I was--roughly 30 years ago, Cape May's beaches were much bigger than they are now, erosion and storms shrank them. Anyway, I walked across the breaker (buried under sand) and was on another section of the beach. Oops.

While all that was going on, my parents were freaking out. Imagine their surprise when they found me sitting on the breaker, and not crying. When my father found out, he was furious! I do remember him saying that if something would have happened to me, he would have divorced my mother, and possibly killed her friend!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

God, this story literally makes me want to cry. How horrible.

It's crap like this that has made me avoid watching or reading the news. I just can't handle what it was doing to me. Since becoming a mom, something's happened to me. It's like my empathy is turned to 11 or something. It's like a punch in the face.

As for each parent thinking the other has the kid, I have read too many horror stories about how something awful happened because of this. My husband and try to act as a tag team, one person being predominantly responsible even when we are both there. I will say "I have to run upstairs a moment, watch her." or whatever. He does the same with me.

[Rapscallion]

It's crap like this that has made me avoid watching or reading the news. I just can't handle what it was doing to me. Since becoming a mom, something's happened to me. It's like my empathy is turned to 11 or something. It's like a punch in the face.

Oddly enough, I saw the same thing happen to a male chum of mine who turned from 'bring it on' to squeamish about films after the birth of his son.

Rapscallion

[AFpheonix]

My mom did that to a few of my siblings before....but then, there were 6 of us, so I guess losing a few wasn't a big deal

[zzapp the witch]

Don't be too harsh to this lady. Yeah, she did something that none of us as parents can concieve of, BUT.....we all do stupid unthinking shit, and will do something insanely dumb or thoughtless at least once in our lives. You know that this incident probably freaked the mother out enough that she's going to be constantly paranoid about the presense and safety of her child now.

Mistakes happen only once, any more than that and its a behavioral pattern.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

While I agree that this incident is absolutely awful, I will also agree that Brain Farts happen.

I would hope I never have one quite this bad, but at least the child was not harmed.

I did one involving my own baby (she was safe, but some of my other stuff was not) that terrified me simply because I couldn't get it out of my head that I had been so stupid while caring for my child. I couldn't stop thinking "What ELSE are you capable of screwing up, dumbass!?"

Here's the link to the story:

http://goteamshelley.blogspot.com/20...-practice.html

(my husband was keeping a blog to let everyone know what we were doing the first year of my daughter's life. We need to update it.)

[Kogarashi]

I have honestly heard stories of parents who've put the baby carrier (with baby) on top of the car while they load other things, then driven off with the baby still on top. I believe in most of the cases I've heard, the baby was just fine, even in the one case where the family made it onto the highway with baby still sitting loosely on top of the car.

Brain farts do happen, difficult as it is to fathom for some folks (myself included). At least the mother in the OP didn't scream at her child for not getting in the car. That would've elevated the story to sucky in my opinion.

:: praying fervently that she never leaves her baby on top of the car ::

[Hempress]

It's crap like this that has made me avoid watching or reading the news. I just can't handle what it was doing to me. Since becoming a mom, something's happened to me. It's like my empathy is turned to 11 or something. It's like a punch in the face.

Me too. Hardly anything used to make me cry before my son was born. But now I get emotional over the smallest things. I've had to hold back tears during Cheerio's commercials.