Horrifed and in tears ~ family drive off holding a 4/5month old baby, no car seat

[*Beema*]

I had just left the NICU at the WCH, where I had seen all of the care, effort and energy that goes into saving beutiful precious little babies.....

only to get to the service station and get petrol, there was a family, mother and father with their daughter and I asume her little boy, approximately 4-5 months old. I was looking at the car when I was filling it and I didn't see any car seat straps in the back, there were wraps over both back windows... the daughter/mother got back in the car holding the baby, she stayed sitting upright, with babe in her arms, I finished filling and walked as close to their car as possible looking through the back window, there was no car seat or capsule I went back to my car to pretend to get something and wrote down their nubmer plate, watch which direction they drove. Had to go and pay for my petrol, so ran in and out and jumped in my car and drove off dialing the police using my car kit.

I gave them the number plate, details of the car, colour type etc, the number plate didn't match the car, so they alerted the patrols int he area to keep a lookout.

There was nothing more I could do as I never saw them again (I went up the same road), I was crying, I felt like I was going to be ill. How could they, I was soooo angry and hurt, that poor innocent little baby, I can't get him out of my head.

It was just horrible

[Eenee]

Thats terrible! hope that little bubba is ok.

Which reminds me of something that happened today. This mother called her 3mth old baby a B**** . She goes you stupid little B**** do you have to make all that noise(baby was just crying) then shoved a bottle in her mouth and said yeah that shut you up you littl B**** I was horrified!

[*Beema*]

Thats terrible! hope that little bubba is ok.

Which reminds me of something that happened today. This mother called her 3mth old baby a B**** . She goes you stupid little B**** do you have to make all that noise(baby was just crying) then shoved a bottle in her mouth and said yeah that shut you up you littl B**** I was horrified!

Oh no that is horrible, oh the poor little bubba, I would hate to think what will happen as they grow up

[Visitor7]

That's just awful. Some people are so negligent.

A few months ago I was following a car which had TWO babies in the back, on adults laps. There were no child seats in the car. I called 000 and gave them the rego details. I happened to follow the car into the car park of my DD's daycare (where I was picking her up) and the police were there within 2 minutes. I didn't hang around to see what happened. I was just appalled that they would travel along the highway doing 80km in peak hour traffic with no child seats in the car!!

[feeb]

That's terrible I hope the baby is ok.

[Winter]

The no car-seat thing is just wrong!

Which reminds me of something that happened today. This mother called her 3mth old baby a B**** . She goes you stupid little B**** do you have to make all that noise(baby was just crying) then shoved a bottle in her mouth and said yeah that shut you up you littl B**** I was horrified!

There really are some feral people out there. I try to think of Bath's "keyhole judging" and keep it in mind when I hear about this sort of stuff, mum might have been having a really bad day - I know I've asked my DD why "you wont just effing sleep?!" at the height of sleep deprivation - so I try to give the benefit of the doubt but you just know when its a bad moment from a generally nice mum or a parenting style whose other dead giveaway is coke / fanta in the baby bottle and swearing at toddlers because they are acting like..well...toddlers.

My heart breaks for the kids and you just know that their chances in life are not great.

[Queen]

How sad! Some people are so stupid sometimes

[phynna]

no car seat & that the rego didn't match the car makes me wonder about an abduction?

[ladybird11]

I'd be inclined to think the car is unregistered, or stolen, as the plates didn't match the description of the vehicle.

It makes me sick to think that innocent babies lives are put at risk when idiotic parents make foolish decisions. You need a licence to drive a car - but not to have a baby, seems wrong to me.

[~clover~]

Good chance it was unrego'd & dad/driver probably had no license too
I used to see this all the time out west. It irritated me more when the parents strapped themselves in, but couldn't be bothered with the kids. Pathetic.
I did have a friend get in a car nursing her 2yo DS. If I could've offered a seat I would've, but couldn't. I just said that if she needed to do that its better to have him out of the seatbelt on her lap & hold him, than in the seatbelt on her lap.
There is no excuse, but I no she would never do it on a highway, or in a busy town.

Some people just don't get it.

[Dansta]

the poor baby. i hope some one find them before anything happens. as for the wrong plates on the car, maybe they've got two, but the one they where in didnt have a current rego? no excuse i know, if they needed fuel in that car, leave an adult at home with the babies some people need to understand something, its not about THEM its about the childs life THEY are putting at risk.

[MrsB26]

oh gawd, i feel sick just reading about it

[harleysgirl]

its hard watching stupid people like that with kids

You did a great thing by calling the police! i hope they catch them!

[Floweryfields]

Gosh, I've see people drive with their newborns on the floor!! It is my pet hate, not putting seat belts on children, in general, but most definitely on children as they know no better. We have heaps of them who let their kids stand up and jump around in the back seat but they never seem to get charged with anything. One family I know who does is a nurse!!

[Marlene]

This thread is just heart breaking

Good on the lovely BB'ers here who have called the police regarding these sorts of things.

[kirsty_lee]

That is so terrible! That is like a news story about ohh a week ago? A couple were pulled over for a routine rbt somewhere down south I think. And the police officer noticed that the 1 year old I think (he was still a baby thats for sure) was sitting in the back seat WITH A SEAT BELT ON!!! no capsule. And she copped a $200 fine. But when the reporter said to her, "Don't you understand that this is wrong" she said "but it's not my car" and the reporter was like "but what about a capsule" and all she could say was that it wasn't her car and that's why he wasn't strapped in. Like she fully did not understand why it was soooooo bad! THe couple were asian (and this has nothing to do with their race, please don't think im racist) but i've noticed a lot of asian families, who can't speak english very well, do the same thing. Im not sure whether that's because it's not mandatory in their country? or if they've not driven in their country? I dont know but it's scary!!!

[~Raven~]

Pretty obvious these people have never been in a car accident. I pity the poor child if they ever were because there would be buckleys chance of them being able to hold onto it A poor child suffers because of the lazy or ignorant parent. Not very fair is it!

[MantaRay]

Oh hun, that must have been so upsetting for you to see I know how you feel, it is so hard to watch kids lives being put at risk, or treated badly.

I am so glad that you called the police. You did everything you did to protect that bubba, good on you. I hope that can give you some closure - you did everything you could and beyond that, you can't be responsible for what happens. It's so hard not to take these things personally isn't it!