Just how much risk are we putting our kids in by leaving them unattended in the car for a couple of minutes?
I’m not talking about leaving them there while you head off to do your weekly shop – I’m talking about the odd occassion when the kids are asleep in the back of the car and I just ‘nip out’ to do something quickly without disturbing them.
Although I am more likely to bring the kids with me than not, on the rare occasion that I do leave them for a minute, I sort of feel terrible about it.
What if they wake up and find I’m not there, freak out and have abandonment issues forever?
Or, worst nightmare, what if someone robs the car with my kids in it, how would I ever forgive myself? (It happens in America, right?)
So why am I still doing it? Because we all know it’s a pain in the neck to drag kids into a shop that they don’t want to be in (case in point: I generally don’t bring the kids shopping with me at all if I can help it).
And sometimes it’s because going through the process of getting them out of their carseats and into the shop, back out of the shop and back into the car takes fourteen times longer than it would have on my own.
I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just saying I’ve done it.
So here it is: my confession of all the times I’ve just ‘nipped’ in on my own.
1. At the schoolgates
When Eva was a small baby and still in her carseat, I would sometimes run in just with Jacob to drop him to school. The weight of a carseat is equivalent to that of a small hippo.
2. At our house
When they’re both asleep in the car on return from a trip and I need to wash the kitchen floor. The driveway is safe innit?
3. The hardware store
I just needed a kitchen plug. And if my kids pull all the tubberware and cutlery onto the floor the way they do in our house, I’ll never be allowed back there.
4. The ATM
Anything that involves expecting your kids to queue patiently in the crappy weather must be avoided at all costs.
5. The garage
If I can’t get a pre-paid pump, I sometimes just do a legger in. Unless Jacob is awake, in which case he wants to ‘help’ me by putting the fuel in and then I have a heart attack every five seconds that he’s going to run off onto the road.
*Please note: I am NOT talking about when the sun is belting down – for the record, I never, ever, ever, ever leave them in the car for even a second when the sun is shining. You just couldn’t, could you?
Do you leave your kids in the car here and there to make life a bit easier? Let us know in the comments.
