Thursday, June 07, 2007
Taking action
This post has been swirling in my head since last Friday, but this is the first opportunity that I have had to actually write it. I had to run an errand for work last Friday afternoon. I had to go to the MEGA OFFICE SUPPLY STORE and pick up some toner. I wheeled into a parking space and when I was getting out of my car I noticed that in the car next to me was a woman in the passenger seat and 2 little children in the backseat. One of the children looked to me maybe 7 or 8 months old and the older one might have been about 2 or 3, not any older than 3. The younger child did not appear to be buckled into his carseat. I am not even sure that it was really a carseat that he was sitting in. He was forward facing and it looked like he was in a carrier, rather than a carseat. At any rate, he was not strapped into anything because he was sitting straight up in it reaching over the side to try and get his bottle that he had dropped. The other child was not in any kind of carseat or booster, he was just sitting on the seat. As I went into the store I thought about what I should do. Should I call the cops and tell them? Would I sound like a raving lunatic if I did that? Should I approach the lady in the car, and if so what would I say to her? I got the toner and left the store and the car was still there. Instead of doing anything, I just left and came back to work. That has really bothered me. My daughter rode in her booster seat until she was actually a little taller than the recommended 48" tall or whatever it is. I am a firm believer in properly buckled up children in a vehicle. Not only is it safer for a child to be in a carseat, it is also the law. How do you know when to call authorities or get involved? What woud you have done?
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8 comments:
I never know what to do in those situations, either. On one hand, I feel like it's none of my business if people make stupid decisions. On the other hand, I feel a responsibility to look out for children when I feel their actual caregivers aren't making the right choices for them.
I don't know what I would have done, but I understand the conflict.
Sunshine,
You could have said something, but she probably wouldn't have changed her behavior. AND she might have gotten upset with you. Anymore you don't know who has a gun.
As I do every day at school with neglectful parents, just get in your car and pray!
J.
Hmmm that's a hard one. I probably wouldn't have called the poilice but rather said something to the lady in the car. Either you're going to get yelled at for putting your nose in their business or you will correct their behaviour. Either way at least you know you tried.
lets just HOPE they were unbuckled because she was parked, but on the other hand all the other "violations" just piss me off
I see it alllll the time and just like you I wonder what to do or say
Sometimes I think of saying "why don't you buckle your kids in properly it's one thing if you care less about your life, but they have no choice but to hope you care enough about their lives"
UGH!!!! that makes me SOOOO mad, what can ya do?
I would have called the police and said "what do you suggest I do?"
#1 you can call anonymously
#2 even if they did come it's not like the kids would be taken away ya know?
I understand what a tough call it is in that situation though
As the rest of the people here have said, "that's a tuff one". She probably would have just told you to screw off or something because I too see people doing these type of stunts all the time and then when something happens they always look for someone or something to blame it on when it's their fault most of the time. You have to feel sorry for the children of such parents who don't seem to care about the safety of them. Hopefully a cop will see this going down the road and some child will be saved but until then life goes on and people like that lady will be there no matter what. Until then it will bother people like us and always have us thinking and worrying about it even if they don't. Yes...what can you or what do you do?
Seriously? I tried to comment on Friday was blogger was on the fritz...aaaargh!
I want to say that I would have whipped out my cellphone and called the police.
But in reality, I would have just ranted to D the entire way home.
Wow-scary situation. Hopefully, the person in the passenger seat just unbuckled them because the car wasn't moving. Unfortunately, though, that's probably not the case. I'm not sure what I would have done, actually. It's something to think about...
I have a loud mouth. I have been known to have obnoxious tendancies.
I would loudly proclaim to no one in particular that "It's a damn shame people are to f-ing lazy to buckle their kids in a car seat. I betcha if it was a pound of (insert whatever vice you think fits them i.e- snickers....dope) they'd buckle that shit in."
For real...It's caused a few confrontations, but I usually see the asshole buckling the kids in after they got called on it in public.
I have also gotten out of the passenger seat of my vehicle at a red light and tapped on the car next to me's window and pretended to "help" them by notifying them their child has somehow removed their restraints. Even if I know for a fact the kids been bouncing around for the past 10 miles and it was not an accidental kid thing.
I lost a baby, I'm not too scared or intimidated to tell others how not to lose theirs.
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