The other day was National Heat Awareness Day. It’s a thing.
The below story was shared with us recently and it we found it really struck a nerve. It just sounds so normal. And because of the normalcy it is terrifying. Think you could never leave your child in the car and forget? Brace yourself.
I love my children a great deal. But I’ll tell you what — last summer our routine was hubby always dropped our daughter off at the day home. We both had to drive past it on our way to work but he left later than I did so he would take her. Then he was away for 2 months so I had to start taking her. I was 16 weeks pregnant. Working shift work in an understaffed ER. I was sleep deprived and stressed. It was about the 3rd day after he left, 6 am driving to work. My daughter had fallen asleep in the 5 minutes it takes to get to the day home. I was 5 blocks past it before for no reason in particular I remembered I had her. Thank goodness. I have tinted windows. She’s rear-facing. I park on a side street about 5 blocks from the hospital. If she had stayed asleep and I HADN’T suddenly remembered her? I’m quite positive I could have very easily driven to work, parked, walked in and never noticed. And no one would have seen her. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about how differently that day could have gone if whatever random thing that reminded me I had her, hadn’t happened.
Am I bad parent? Am I neglectful? Do I not love my child enough to remember her? No. Absolutely not. I know I’m a kick ass parent thank you very much. But I would never be naive enough to say “I would never do that”. Now my habit is to put my bag in the back seat on the floor behind her seat. Do I value my bag more than my child? Of course not. But when I’m on autopilot my bag is part of that routine., and my child isn’t always.
For some good safety tips visit http://www.safekids.org/heatstroke
For a longer, more thorough read including information from memory researchers, check out this Pulitzer Prize-winning article.