Ominous question at times, yes? You are standing in the kitchen working on a grocery list when you realize all of a sudden, the house is much, much too quiet. At that precise moment, you KNOW your precious little cherubs are up to something. What will it be this time? A roll of toilet paper completely unrolled? Lipstick on the mirror? Hiding beneath the bed with a bag of M&Ms? Taking a sneak peek at a wrapped present for someone else?
You turn around and you have pre-teens. It becomes much harder to keep tabs on them because of their ever expanding world. Tutorials, band, clubs, church, movies, friends. Did they check in with you? Do you know who they are with, where they are and when to expect them home?
Next turn around you’ve got full-fledged teenagers who are driving, thankfully not drinking and hopefully not texting! They have stars in their eyes and only one foot firmly on the ground. The world is their oyster if they could just pass Trigonometry and get a decent score on the SAT. Jobs, social media, homework, sports, volunteering and hanging out are now front and center. Fine line between knowing where they are at any given moment and letting them stretch their wings of independence.
But what about the littlest ones? Say those under the age of two? The ones most in need of our protection, care, and love. They have little or no say in the matter for a couple of years. Who’s looking out for them? Obviously the parents, but is there a wider safety net?
I ask this question because a terrible occurrence begins happening this time of year, every year. Parents and/or caregivers inadvertently leave their youngest charges strapped in their vehicle in a car seat and walk away from them into work and come out to a horrific discovery eight hours later. It breaks my heart that in our sleep deprived, money dominated society, parents can sleepwalk through the motions of life’s requirements and in the process lose their most precious possessions. An average of 38 children die of heatstroke in vehicles every year and half of those were “forgotten.”
It also makes me mad. Flat out mad. In my opinion, someone should have invented a solution for this reoccurring problem long ago! Why don’t the car seat manufacturers design a car seat that talks to the driver as soon as the ignition is turned off? Why isn’t there an app to alert the driver of passengers in the car? Why don’t daycares call the parents of children within one hour of tardiness to determine the safe whereabouts of the child? Many ISD’s have phone systems that alert parents if their child is tardy or absent within two hours of school’s start time. Why don’t daycares? How many children could have been saved if someone had just asked, “Hey, where’s your little one today?”
Parenting is hard work. We need a helping hand. Exhaustion is mind bending. But most of us do what we do all day because we love our children and want to provide the very best for them. Come on! Somebody invent a way to keep babies in car seats from being left behind and robbing us of the joy of knowing them. I dare you.
In the meantime parents, write “Kids Accounted For?” on an index card and duct tape it to your steering wheel or console or phone or purse or laptop bag or whatever!! Or set an alarm on your phone. Ask your day care to call if you don’t show up by a certain time. Put your purse or laptop bag in the back seat with the child. Keep a stuffed animal in the seat at all times and when your child is in the seat, put the stuffed animal next to you as a reminder. Because a back-up system is always a good idea to keep your kids accounted for.
What’s your idea for a solution to these needless tragedies? What other invention would be of great help to parents?
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