Dear Mr. Druin,
I needed a few hours to compose myself enough to offer a comment to your letter regarding the “inconvenience” and “upset” your wife experienced in being confronted about leaving your five- and eight-year-old children alone in your car while she was in the dollar store “for only five minutes”. Instead of outraged indignation I think you should be eternally grateful to the woman who stopped and cared enough about your children to take notice.
I ask you if you would leave $1,000 sitting on your dashboard? I’m sure your answer is a definite “of course not,” so why in the world would you leave your children? You said she would be inconvenienced taking them in the store with her? Would she rather be inconvenienced or live with the regret for the rest of her life if something had happened? If you think nothing could happen in “just five minutes” … guess again … a child died in Calgary after getting out of her car seat and having the automatic window somehow activate, catching her throat and strangling her; two children have died in Canada in the last month after being found in parked vehicles – in one case the grandmother was charged in the death of her three-year-old grandchild.
I’m aware of at least two cases where children have disappeared out of vehicles – in one case fortunately the child was turned over to the police – in the other the child is missing. What if there was a vehicle fire, or someone crashed into your car? What if your children got out of the car to look for Mom … in a busy parking lot? A car is not a babysitter.
It is illegal to leave your child in a vehicle but good parenting should give you a clue. If a child is found unattended in a vehicle the parent can be charged under Alberta’s Child Youth and Family Enhancement Act for either abandoning their child or causing the child to be in need of intervention – parents are being charged regularly under this Act this summer – and this will lead you to have a child welfare record for the remainder of your life.
Of course that record would be nothing compared to losing your children as a result of your neglect. Hopefully the RCMP and/or Children’s Services have contacted you and you are reconsidering your position.
To the woman who stopped and cared, thank you. It is so heartbreaking to hear the continued stories of children (and pets) being left in cars. It’s even more heartbreaking to realize so many parents out there still don’t get it.
Cheryl Stuart, St. Albert
