Stupid parents should be prosecuted

[sleepyjeff]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Hmm. There was a case in recent years of a dad who usually didn't take a child to daycare. One day he had to take on the responsibility, and in his usual morning routine, completely forgot he had a 3 year old in the carseat in the back. Kid baked to death while dad was at work.

Can you imagine what that must be like for the dad....he was yards away, all day....at any point he could have gone out and saved his child....but he simply forgot, because he never had to do it before....

I'm unsure how to feel about prosecuting a man like this.

Now people that know the kid is in the car and just "go in for a minute", that's another story.

This is so true.......take someone out of their normal routine and add a dose of tiredness and just about anyone can forget anything(including, sadly enough, a child) I draw a distinction between someone who intentionaly leaves a child in a car thinking they will be ok , and someone who just plumb forgot(their punishment, the loss of the child, is far greater then anything a prosecutor could mesh out)

btw..........it almost happened to me........my little bundle of joy(about 4 months old) was handed to me by my wife at the last minute because she was very sick. I was to take him to grandmas house on my way to work.The long commute and the quiet baby soon had me almost hypnoticaly transfered to my normal routine and it was only when I was pulling into the driveway at work that the baby started fussing. I would like to think that I would have remembered or noticed the baby back there before I actually went into the building had he not cried out.........but I really don't know