This past Saturday evening, I called the police. It was one of the first times I’ve had to call 911. Nothing was wrong with me. Nothing was wrong with my kids. But I called and then proceeded to wait for 7 minutes until four police cars and a fire truck arrived. What happened to cause me to need to call 911? I didn’t want to see the news and realize I should’ve done something.
On Saturday evening, I pulled into the grocery store parking lot, parked in a spot between two cars, and got out. Movement from the car next to me caught my eye. I looked in to see a young boy that I guessed to be 8-10 years old in the front seat and a toddler and baby in the back seat. No parent. Car was off.
It was evening, the temperature was cooler than usual, in the mid-70’s I guessed, but I knew that that car was warmer than it was outside because I’ve watched the videos about how the temperatures in cars rises faster than outside.
As I walked to the entrance of the store, I kept thinking about those kids. I knew the child in the front was probably ok, but I couldn’t get my mind off the babies in the back. I stood at the entrance where I could see the car for a few minutes, waiting to see if there was an adult nearby or if a parent came back to the car quickly. I didn’t know how long they had been in the car though.
My mind started to race with thoughts of if something had happened to the mom. It wasn’t that long ago that, here in North Texas, a mom took her kids to a Target parking lot and then committed suicide, leaving the kids in her car for days until someone found them. What if something happened to these kids’ mom, and I could have done something to get them help faster?
What if I didn’t do something and then they became a terrible news story. I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing something bad happen to a child, knowing I could’ve done something to have prevented it.
I called my mom to ask her what to do. Do I call the non-emergency line? Do I go inside at report it to customer service? Do I just call 911? She quickly responded, “You call 911.”
I texted my nephew, a deputy with a local sheriff’s department, and he sent me the law.
A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly leaves a child in a motor vehicle for longer than five minutes, knowing the child is:
Texas Penal Code 22.10
(1) younger than 7 years of age; and
(2) not attended by an individual in the vehicle who is 14 years of age or older.
Even with the law sitting right there in front of me, I hesitated, hoping the parent would come out, hoping that the children would be ok. But my worry won out. My concern that something would happen overwhelmed everything else.
And that was when I called 911. I reported to the dispatcher what I saw, where I was, and was told to stay there and call back if the kids were in any distress or if a parent returned.
And then I waited. I waited and prayed that a parent would come out. I prayed that the kids would be okay. I prayed that the police would hurry before something bad happened.
It was a long 7 minutes for them to arrive. But they did arrive. As they were approaching the car, the mom of the children came out of the grocery store. As the situation was now being handled, I walked into the store, hoping that the mom and children were okay.
So here’s the thing-
Good parents make bad choices all of the time. Sometimes we may feel in a bind. Sometimes we may feel like we have no other option.
My own mom left me in a running car once while she ran into the post office. I had a migraine and just wanted to sleep, but when she returned to the car, I had locked the doors and was so deeply asleep, I couldn’t hear her pounding on the windows for me to wake up. She bruised her fists trying to wake me up.
But I still think my mom is one of the best in the world. She is my model for motherhood. She made a choice, thought it was the right one, but it was a choice she regrets to this day.
I have no judgement for the mom who left her kids in the car on Saturday night. She probably thought she was just going to run in quickly for a few items and that the older sibling would watch the younger ones. Unfortunately, it was a choice that broke the law and my heart and head wanted to be better safe than sorry.
Children die in hot cars every summer. Children have been in cars that are jacked, their parents leaving them alone in a running car thinking it was a better option than to leave them in a car that was turned off. Running or not, it is dangerous and illegal to keep your child under 14 in a car without an adult.
So here is my passionate plea-
If you get out of a car and see a young child alone in the car next to you, call the police. You never know what the circumstances are. Maybe something has happened to the parents. Maybe the child fell asleep and the parent forgot because they were on autopilot or focused on the task at hand. Maybe the parent is sleep deprived and forgot the child was back there. Maybe the parent just made a poor choice in the moment.
It doesn’t matter. Call the police. It is better to speak with the police and have a child alive than to try to mind your own business and see a news story about a dead child.
And for the other side of it…
If you are a parent that made a poor choice in the moment and thought it would be easier to just run inside quickly and leave your child in the car, you are not a bad parent, but learn from the mistake. Don’t do it again. Just because it was “okay” the one time doesn’t mean that it is okay. I know it’s hard dragging your kids into a store or post office or wherever, but I know you can do it. I have faith in you.
And if you do have the police called because you chose to leave your kiddos in the car, it isn’t because someone is out to get you. It isn’t because someone couldn’t mind their own business. It isn’t because someone is on a high horse or thinks they’re a better parent. It’s because someone cared about your kids. It’s because someone wanted to make sure that your kids survived. It’s because they want them in this world and didn’t want them to become a news story because of a hot car.