Do you do it?

[~~Snoogans~~]

The other week at 4 year old Kindy, when I was picking up Miss H, I was waiting in the car park until it was time to go get her.

A mum got out of her car and locked it. She started talking to her friend, another mum, and I heard her say *Oh *such n such* (her son, looked about 18months old) is asleep, so he can just stay in the car til I get back*

The car park is next to the kindy, but you can NOT see yr car from the kinder!

I have seen another mum do the same thing with one of her children as well.

So I am wondering, do you do it? Or, like me, are you kind of shocked when you see a kid in a car with no adult with them?

What age do you think is appropriate to leave a child in the car while you *run an errand, or pick up sibling from kindy etc*

[Charlotte91]

Ahhh, NO. I wouldn't do it. Isn't it illegal, anyway??

[LuluHB]

No way, and like Charlotte said, I thought it was illegal.

At my kids' school there is a woman who leaves her baby sleeping in the car. Bad enough I think but she leaves the keys inside with the engine on! Not sure if she's decreasing the danger to the baby by leaving the airconditioner on, or increasing it by making it so much easier for someone to take her car and baby. Not sure if things have improved now that the weather has cooled down because now she takes the keys with her (I think) but leaves the side door slid open (its a people mover). To pick our children up we have to go around the back of the building, so walk about 200m out of sight of the car park.

I'm not sure there is an appropriate age TBH. In our climate there aren't that many months where it would be safe from a heat point of view to leave kids in a car. As kids get older I guess its safer to leave them, but also easier for them to get in and out themselves so why wouldn't you take them on quick errands?

[skybie]

As annoying as it is to get a sleeping baby/child out of the car to pick up siblings, no i dont do it.
i do however leave the kids in the car at the petrol station, but only if DD1 is in the car, otherwise i try to avoid trips to the servo if i have them

[misty]

Yes, I do it with all my kids. I will leave the two youngest in the car (either awake or asleep) while I do the run in to get DS1 from pre-school.
Three reasons:
1) I am gone maybe 2mins tops
2) if we do get out of the car, there is screaming and tantrums and full on lay on the ground refusal to move by the 2yr old when trying to get back into the car. Every. Single. Time. So I am left to wrestle with an unco-operative toddler in a very busy carpark, a baby who may or may not be sleeping, and the fouryear old who might be happy and co-operative or maybe overtired and sooky and refusing to do as he is told or carry his school bag.
3) I have only 10mins to race from Preschool to my DD1's school (which three suburbs away) and pick her up. I am usually late as it is, getting the kids out at preschool adds infinite time to that.

When they are in the car, they are strapped in, out of the elements, away from the danger of other cars. When they are out, the risks multiple 100x. It does not make sense to take them out of the car for that short time.

[Novella]

I do at the petrol station, I know it's illegal but safety wise with three children out of the car with so many cars coming and going seems a lot more risky for us. I do wish the woolworthx pay at the pump service could use any banks card not just theirs I would much prefer to pay at the pump and not leave the kids

I have left dd2 in the car when getting dd1 from school but the door to the car was open and I was 5 metres away by the fence, still illegal but I was able to see and hear her

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I leave both girls in the car at the petrol station, NEVER have i taken them out to go & pay for petrol.

I've left DD1 awake in the car while DD2 was sleeping to run into the supermarket for 2min - windows cracked on a cool day.

When we pick DD1 up from kinder though i have carried DD2 in asleep on my shoulder, more for the reason i don't always know how long i will be and i wouldn't want her waking up alone IYKWIM.

I can understand why some people WOULD leave a sleeping bub for a quick run in, sign & get out but i don't.

[~clover~]

I left DD3 sleeping & DS at home alone yesterday for 3 minutes while I ran the girls lunches up to the school for them.

I would leave DD asleep in the car to get the bigger kids from school. But I would park where I can see & I am only 5m from the car. I never get my kids out at the servo. Its different here where nothing takes longer than 30 seconds & you're always with in metres of the car though. That said, if I'm somewhere else, in a city or whatever, I have the older kids all with me. The only place in a bigger town I would leave them in the car though would be a servo. Every where else I'd get them out, sleeping or not.

I also used to leave DD sleeping in the car for DC drop off or pick up. I couldn't see her then, but the DC was up a long driveway behind houses & out of the way & I knew I wouldn't be longer than 5 minutes, with windows down & doors locked.

[Lenny]

It's NOT illegal to leave your kids in the car!

The rule is they must be safer in the car than if they were out of it. Pretty sure the petrol station counts here. I almost never go anywhere without both kids, so I have to take them to get petrol.

This is just an example of some legislation.

NSW
The Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 2000. Section 231 of the Act reads:
A person who leaves any child or young person in the person’s care in a motor vehicle without proper supervision for such period or in such circumstances that:
(a) the child or young person becomes or is likely to become emotionally distressed, or
(b) the child’s or young person’s health becomes or is likely to become permanently or temporarily impaired, is guilty of an offence.

VIC
Under the Children, Youth and Families Act, it is an offence to leave a child unattended for an unreasonable time, with penalties of $1,652 or imprisonment for three months

[Astrid]

I leave the kids in the car to pay for petrol.

I have left DD2 in the car on the odd occasion for the kinder pickup. Would stay with her until I saw other families leaving, then I would go in and grab DD1. Have left both kids sleeping in the car as I unload groceries at home.

[OceanPrincess]

Constant battle for me as DD finishes kinder on Tuesdays and DS is often still asleep. But I wake him. In my mind, he is too old and too young to be left alone! If he were younger he wouldn't understand if I were gone when he woke up and if he were older I'd be infinitely more comfortable. But I'm not, so I don't.

I do at the petrol station, leave them in the car, but I try to avoid that, get petrol when DH is there too etc.

[MummyNaomi]

I do at the petrol station, I know it's illegal but safety wise with three children out of the car with so many cars coming and going seems a lot more risky for us. I do wish the woolworthx pay at the pump service could use any banks card not just theirs I would much prefer to pay at the pump and not leave the kids

We used to have a Mobil not far that still accepting Pay@Pump, but they don't any more. Funnily I suggested we get the Woolies Card to DH just for petrol use for this very reason. It was not too hard to take DS in while paying, but taking a baby and a toddler in is just too hard so I am seriously going to get the card before bubs arrives.

I have left DS in the car to pay for petrol before, and when parked right in front of the ATM to get cash, but unless the car is literally a few metres from where I need to go, I don't, I'd rather risk waking them.

[No.5]

Nope I've never left DS in the car by himself. I found out the other day (thanks DS) that DH leaves him in the car when paying for petrol though! Wasn't impressed when I found out.

Don't really know what I'd consider an appropriate age, I guess it would depend on the circumstances (where, how long etc)

[Beautiful Disaster]

I do at the petrol station, leave them in the car, but I try to avoid that, get petrol when DH is there too etc.

I do this too but I lock the car and have the windows down. So hard just together him in and out for a 1 min thing.

[mrscricket]

Yep, I do it for the kindy pickup. At our kinder, you go into the foyer, sign the signout book, pick up the childs bag and the teacher sends the child out to you. It literally takes 2 minutes. Not say I have special circumstances but for me to get both girls out of the car, set up the pram, or put one into the sling and carry the other, then walk into kinder, it takes a lot longer than 2 mintues.

I always take them in when I do the morning drop off because we actually go into the room, have a chat with the teacher, look at the artwork, say g'day to the chooks I don't take them into the petrol station because it is far more dangerous for me to wrangle my 3 kids into the shop, than run in and pay quickly. We live in a small country town so there is never any waiting etc.

I have been abused twice now by people who have seen me park at the supermarket, run in and grab the twin trolley (they keep them insdie at ours in a special spot so you know its a twinnie) and come out to put the girls in it. It left me gobsmacked. Good luck to anyone that thinks they can carry both children in, as well as shopping bags, purse, holding on DS's hand, and then load them into the trolley. I have never left them in the car while I have actually gone in and brought something - even milk, despite DS asking to stay in the car and watch his DVD.

There has been a few threads about this over the time I have been on BB and they can get fairly heated. All I am saying is in my circumstance, if the other kinder mum's are shocked at me leaving the girls in the car, I'd rather them come over and ask if I needed a hand, or if they could wait by the car for me.

[~clover~]

I had DD1 & DD2 in town years ago. They were about 9 months & 3.5. I went looking for formula after we decided to stay in town for the night. I pulled up at a little corner store, ran in, asked if they sold formula & ran out again when they said no. As I got back into the car I had someone sitting on a seat outside the shop yell at me that its illegal to leave kids in the car.

It was night time, not hot. I asked rather than looking so I was quicker & there was, in my mind, no risk. The shop was all windows at the front & I only had to cross the foot path & walk 4 feet in to the shop to ask.

People can just be plain rude when they don't know the story, or they just think they have the right to say what ever the hell they like.

I've seen some horrible tragedies & near tragedies recieve some terrible comments, on here & in RL, then people find out the facts to the stories & realise just how horribly cruel their oppinions/thoughts are.

Its time people learnt to bite their tongues & accept that you will very rarely know the full stories & its not your right to judge anyone that is not you.

[beansbeans!]

Yes I leave DD2 and 3 in the car if they are asleep when I am picking up DD1 from preschool. I will also leave them in the car at the petrol station.

I park my car as close as I can, I make sure I can my car. I leave the windows half way down, and I lock the car. Im sorry but I think at times it is safer to leave them in the car, rather than taking them out.

I personally think its ok, so long as the child is not endangered, they are not terrified of being left in the car, etc.

Sometimes the risks of taking them out of the car, outweigh the risks of leaving them in the car, especially for short periods of time.

[Traveller]

My kids are older now, but when they were little I would make a judgement call and leave them if it was cool, if I knew I was going to be fast, or if they had been screaming for 5 hours straight and had finally fallen asleep. Apart from at the petrol station where I leave them in the car as imho walking kids through a petrol station is unsafe. If it is too hot to leave the kids in the car at the petrol station then I would time it so I could buy petrol at a cooler time of day.