In Case You Need Something Else to Fret About...

It's hot as hell these days, and I’ve got hyperthermia on my mind. There was a big story on France Info today that was very similar to one in my local paper last week: Dad forgets to drop child at daycare and goes right on into work, leaving child to die in the sweltering heat of late July. There was also a case in the news a year or two ago involving, if memory serves, a minor public official in Maryland. Both the guys in France and VA, I believe, have been charged with manslaughter. Can’t remember if the guy in MD was charged…Also brings to mind an old episode of CSI where the dad left his baby in the car and pretended it was an accident, but Grissom and co. discovered he had really done it on purpose because the baby had some kind of horrible genetic disease (that’s the Hollywood twist, I guess).

Was curious about how often this kind of thing occurs and went looking for some stats. Found an interesting study on a site called Kids and Cars. According to this report, over 2/3 of cases involved kids who were left in cars (intentionally (car seat as babysitter!) or unintentionally) and the rest involved kids who got into someone’s car while unsupervised and got trapped. The most common sitch, it seems, is something like the ones in the news lately: people just forgetting the kids are back there…

So my question is this: are these guys freaks (it does seem to be a guy thing based on the accounts I’ve come across) so absorbed in their jobs that they forget all about their offspring--or could it happen to anyone? Is it so unthinkable with all the distractions and the general fog of parenthood? My irrational (I hope!) fears have always run more along the lines of leaving the baby somewhere, of not getting her into the car, rather than leaving her inside. I occasionally find myself reaching back to touch Coco’s little toes, just to make sure she’s back there (OCD much?). I have to admit that I accidentally shut one of our cats in my car last summer. I had left the back door open while retrieving some recyclables and he snuck in. Fortunately, I had to go out shortly thereafter and discovered him no worse for wear, but was distraught thinking about what might have happened. Not that my stupid cat story is in any way comparable to a kid dying in a parked car, which is, of course, truly heartbreaking. Guess I’ll try to get more sleep and keep on praying for presence of mind.