2018 Hot Car Deaths

[Mike]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...=.1ae17d9a7933

I always encourage everyone to read this article and to never believe that it can't happen to you. Put safeguards in place. Give yourself reminders. My husband and I always send a snap to each other when we drop off the kids. It's not foolproof. I've never personally known anyone effected by this, but I read this article every single year. I can feel the suffering in these stories. It's very tragic.

It's a mixup how some parents are charged and others aren't, but I doubt it makes much difference because I'm sure either way, they will be punishing themselves more than the courts do.

I would never want to be responsible to call or text a parent if a child didn't show on time. I never want to be responsible for a child that is not in my care. I think State's that require providers to do this have crossed the line. It's way too much liability especially for centers, providers who carry numerous kids that have rotating or odd schedules or part timers, and providers with large groups.

Arrival times are so busy. I don't watch the clock like I do at departure times.

As I said before, I think checking is a nice thing to do, but there's no way they should be able to make it mandatory. You're responsible for the children while they are in your care, not before or after.

[lovemykidstoo]

It's a mixup how some parents are charged and others aren't, but I doubt it makes much difference because I'm sure either way, they will be punishing themselves more than the courts do.



As I said before, I think checking is a nice thing to do, but there's no way they should be able to make it mandatory. You're responsible for the children while they are in your care, not before or after.

There are alot of links in this thread, is there a state that is trying to make it mandatory?

I am licensed for 6 and my parents are very regular in their times and thankfully also very responsible in letting me know if they're running late. If they don't let me know and they are late, I text. I have only had to do that a few times, but the parent every time showed such appreciation that I did that. Like others, if me simply texting has the possibility of saving a life, I say why wouldn't you.

[mamamanda]

I have families that are very regular with drop off/pick up times & I absolutely text if they don't show. Have only had to do that twice I believe. Mom had overslept & was grateful for the wake up call. I have another family who has been consistently late for both drop off & pick up. They've been no call no shows several times. This is the family that forgot their kid in my care. I never know whether to contact them or not. It's just so normal for them. And they rarely respond to a text. Today was their last day with me. They were thirty minutes late. They've been on time the last few weeks since I said one more tardy b& I'm done, but apparently when it's your last day there's no threat for losing care.
Ishut the door & breathed a sigh of relief. I do worry about the child though.

[Ariana]

I always send a text but certainly would not want to be held liable for that one time I forgot and a child died!

There has to be an alarm system set up in a car that detects motion, similar to the Angel care system. It gets hooked onto a carseat or the back window or whatever and when the car is not in motion and it detects movemeng it alarms on your phone or something. I cannot imagine ever forgetting my kids in a car, it is unfathomable to me but I assume people are not intentionally doing this

[Pestle]

How does it happen? My ADHD spouse goes on autopilot and takes the wrong route quite often. He also forgets part of the schedule when there are multiple steps to it, so people don't get dropped off or picked up.

When he's driving, I'll say "Where are you going?" and he'll snap back into it, realize he's headed to a different part of town, and turn around. When DD was in school, I insisted he call me each morning from the school parking lot. There were times he forgot to call, and I'd call him and yell at him until he went out to the office parking lot and looking inside the car. There were a couple of times I couldn't get ahold of him right away and was in the process of reaching out to his coworkers when he called me back. I taught DD as soon as possible to yell "Stop!" if anybody was leaving her in a car, and to never, never stay in a car by herself, even if Mommy or Daddy left her there.

I am so, so glad DD is in a booster seat and gets herself into and out of the car now. Come to think of it, today I'll have her practice climbing over the seats and unlocking the doors from the front control.

[Blackcat31]

(Please note that I am in no way blaming providers or assuming responsibility falls on them --- but if you had the opportunity to safe a kids life by checking in with the parent, wouldn't you want to help?)

That's a very unfair statement and way too complex to expect a yes or no response.

Did you watch the video I posted about the provider testifying at the Senate hearing in MN... the provider that had a baby die of SIDS in her care....look what happened to her.

Do I want to even be involved in discussions about MY responsibility in calling a no-show parent to double check to see if they forgot THEIR baby in the car?

The short answer is no.

That doesn't automatically mean I am cold, or don't care or that I am refusing to be part of the "village" or that I am callous and unfeeling.

It means I have enough responsibility on my plate already (potty training, sleep training, teaching good manners/behaviors, teaching health/nutrition, providing exercise and outdoor time, teaching academics and self-help skills etc..) and I'll be damned if I will accept the responsibility and liability of making sure parents don't forget their precious babies in the car.

If the parent forgets and baby dies......it's a tragic, horrible, senseless accident.

If I forget to call and baby dies....I'll forever be the monster that caused a child's death. I will never work in this field again and will more then likely lose everything I've worked for my whole life.


Society as a whole really needs to start reassessing responsibility and assigning it where it truly belongs.

In MANY areas of life. Not just this particular topic.







@Happymom....my response wasn't aimed at you personally. I'm just weary of the concept that child care providers should bear the responsibility for so many things.

[boy_mom]

Society as a whole really needs to start reassessing responsibility and assigning it where it truly belongs.

This!!!

[amberrose3dg]

That's a very unfair statement and way too complex to expect a yes or no response.

Did you watch the video I posted about the provider testifying at the Senate hearing in MN... the provider that had a baby die of SIDS in her care....look what happened to her.

Do I want to even be involved in discussions about MY responsibility in calling a no-show parent to double check to see if they forgot THEIR baby in the car?

The short answer is no.

That doesn't automatically mean I am cold, or don't care or that I am refusing to be part of the "village" or that I am callous and unfeeling.

It means I have enough responsibility on my plate already (potty training, sleep training, teaching good manners/behaviors, teaching health/nutrition, providing exercise and outdoor time, teaching academics and self-help skills etc..) and I'll be damned if I will accept the responsibility and liability of making sure parents don't forget their precious babies in the car.

If the parent forgets and baby dies......it's a tragic, horrible, senseless accident.

If I forget to call and baby dies....I'll forever be the monster that caused a child's death. I will never work in this field again and will more then likely lose everything I've worked for my whole life.


Society as a whole really needs to start reassessing responsibility and assigning it where it truly belongs.

In MANY areas of life. Not just this particular topic.







@Happymom....my response wasn't aimed at you personally. I'm just weary of the concept that child care providers should bear the responsibility for so many things.

I see both sides of this issue , I do. I however do not think providers or schools should be responsible to call when a child does not show up. I have had parents not tell me when their children wouldn't be here. If I would forget to call or assume they are simply not telling me it would be my fault? That is something I do not see as fair. I think more responsibility needs to be on the parent's. This wasn't an issue 30 years ago when I was growing up. Something has changed in today's world to make this happen.Even if you change your routine how do you simply forget to drop your child off? Parents need to set up a system for them if they cannot remember. Maybe look at your back seat each time you get out of the car to make sure no one is back there. Call your spouses when you get to work etc..
Daycares and schools bare enough responsibility. Parents need to be responsible for their children when they have them.

[nannyde]

I also think the parent has a myriad of ways to have a double check system that doesn't involve the daycare.

That notification system could be between spouses, between the parent and the grandparent, between parent and co-workers etc. They can all have a system where the parent texts or calls their notified person that they have dropped the child off at daycare and the notified person texts or calls back to confirm.

Can you imagine having laws that REQUIRE a parent to have a notification system when transporting their child to be dropped off anywhere? Parents would flip.

Why not leave it to the employers... require each business that has workers that have children under school age to sign into work and sign they have dropped their child off at care or someone else was dropping the child off? Do you think employers would want to have this responsibility?

I've heard of parents driving with one shoe on and putting their second shoe on reminds them to check the back seat. There are alarms, there are cell phones that parents can set an alarm to remind them to check the back seat.

I just don't want child care providers to be expected to do the notification. I can see SO many scenarios where a phone call or a text to a parent would make them angry if they had made other arrangements for drop off without telling the provider and they were home sleeping, in an early meeting etc, at the doctors office etc.

I have had a million times when parents are late and didn't even realize they were running late unless it interfered with something I would normally do with the kid like go out for a walk. I don't even think about the kids until they pull into the driveway during arrivals unless I train myself to be up on the receiving level of the daycare at a certain time.

Some providers sleep until the first kid arrives. The first parent is their alarm clock. She may be fast asleep when the parent was supposed to arrive. Even though I would never sleep up until the kids start arriving, I have known many providers who do so. If the kid is late they would be sleeping themselves. They wouldn't even know it was past the time.

I really can't imagine doing this when I had the business model of primarily part time kids with both day and evening shifts. I could easily have twenty-five kids on my roster. I could never keep track of it. I can't imagine centers having to do it. It would be so expensive or it would require each teacher in the rooms to have call training and do it from the rooms which would give the cell numbers of each kid to the staff. I wouldn't want my staff having my parents phone numbers. I wouldn't want to be responsible for the staff to call. I can't imagine, with the very high turnover in staff and the high volume of staff call ins, having the staff be responsible to call and me being responsible for them to be responsible.

[Cat Herder]

I never intended this to be controversial. I don't want to see providers feel criticised for their concerns.

Providers who are afraid of the liability of the official *recommendations are not heartless. They are experienced in the patterns of the legislature and are wary. Calling for late arrivals is only a recommendation BUT recommendations have a way of becoming mandatory in our field.

"These deaths are preventable, and everyone in the community, especially Head Start and child care providers, has a role to play in protecting our children." and "Get in touch with designated family members if a child who is regularly in your care does not arrive as expected." - https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ/news/car...mmer-time-safe - US Dept of Health and Human Services, Office of Child Care


Especially us? That is the concept that many resent, that we are more responsible for the kids outside of our care than the parents. It is a ridiculous notion that extends to so many new "parent engagement and outreach" mandates.

Providers fear of becoming liable if this becomes mandatory is entirely valid. It should not be our responsibility (or car manufacturers, for that matter).

I, personally, stand by my conviction that we have a chance to save an innocent life. I will worry about the liability when it happens in this case. This is a risk I am willing to take.

[Blackcat31]

I had a parent scheduled to drop off this morning at 7:45.
They aren't here. They haven't texted or called.
I called/I texted.... no response.

What happens now?

Do I make the other 9 kids I have here just sit quietly and wait before we move onto art/craft time? Art/craft time takes ALL my attention so I can't continue calling and texting WHILE supervising art/craft time. Wonder if I'd get dinged by licensing for having the kids just sit and wait like this? Can't possibly be DAP for them.

What happened to ONE child's need not being more important than the needs of the GROUP?

So what do I do?

Do I call the police?
Do I pack-up my DCK's and drive over to their house and see what's up? My vehicle isn't big enough.
Do I call other parents to come back and pick their kids up so I can fit a few in my car?
Do I call my DH and have him go check?
Do I call the DCMs place of employment to see if she showed up yet? (last time I called her work, she had lied to her boss saying she was home sick with her child but in reality I had her child and was calling her to come pick up because child really did get sick...)
Do I call CPS? The fire department?

Seriously....what do I do now?
Realistically.....what does a provider do in this situation?

[Cat Herder]

Seriously....what do I do now?
Realistically.....what does a provider do in this situation?

You go on with your life knowing you did your small part.

[Tin Blues]

I call and leave a message. And then go on to the next person on the list. And I keep calling until I know the situation. But I only take full time kids and they all have the same schedule. If one of them is more than 10 minutes late, I know something has happened. Lots of times, it’s simply the parent forgot to call. But once it was because they were in the ditch and once it was a medical situation. I want to know for my own peace of mind. For the most part, my parents are pretty responsible.

[Baby Beluga]

You go on with your life knowing you did your small part.

I agree with both sides.

1) I would never want to be responsible for a child when they are not in my care. If sending a text/checking in were mandatory I would close my doors

2) If I can do something small, like send a text, I do. Depending on the family and their arrival habits determines how long I wait. Usually I wait 1 hour and send a group text to both mom and dad.

My question is this: If a provider usually sends a text to a late parent and forgets to send a text one on one occasion and on that one occasion something tragic actually does happen, like a child being left in the car, can the provider be held responsible since he/she sent texts in the past?

[Cat Herder]

My question is this: If a provider usually sends a text to a late parent and forgets to send a text one on one occasion and on that one occasion something tragic actually does happen, like a child being left in the car, can the provider be held responsible since he/she sent texts in the past?

That is the fear but there is no current case history to support it to my knowledge.

IMHO, That would change if it became law like the safe sleep, fencing and playground safety recommendations did.