The Shopping Cart Conundrum

A few years ago (and long before Greenleigh was even a thought) I was at home during the day and turned on the Dr. Phil show.  Oh, how I love daytime television, even Dr. Phil.  This particular episode focused on a woman named Treffly Coyne, who had been arrested and charged for leaving her sleeping 2 year old in the car while she walked approximately 30 feet away to donate some money to a Salvation Army bell-ringer.  Coyne explained to the audience that when she put her daughter in the car that evening she was asleep, and she was still asleep when they reached the Wal-Mart where she was to donate the money.  It was sleeting outside, so she made the decision to leave her toddler in the car, and only take her older daughters with her.  She left the car running with the heat on, set the alarm, and walked over to the bell-ringer.  After donating the money, they began their walk back to the vehicle, but were stopped by a community safety officer.  Coyne was then arrested and charged with child endangerment and obstructing an officer, charges which carried a $2500 fine and up to a year in jail.  Public outrage ensued.  People dug in their heels on either side of the issue.  After months of debate, the charges were dropped.

During the course of the show, Dr. Phil took an audience poll to see whether they thought Coyne had done something wrong.  In a rough poll based on people raising their hands, it appeared that about half of the audience thought they should be prosecuted.  At the time, I didn’t really know where I stood.  On one hand she left her toddler in the car, unattended.  A myriad of bad things could have happened.  On the other hand, it was 30 feet (or less), during inclement weather, and the child was sleeping in a locked car with the alarm activated.  My mother left my sister and I in cars when we were little under less favorable conditions, and we turned out okay.  As the show progressed on, one of the audience members said something to the effect that she wouldn’t even leave her kids in the car when she walked down her short driveway to put something in the mailbox.

About a year ago I was out grocery shopping with Greenleigh all by myself.  I had unloaded the cart and gotten Greenleigh into her carseat.  I then looked at the empty cart and realized that I needed to return it to one of the cart corals or the store.  As someone who has had her car scratched by a loose shopping cart in a parking lot, I hate when they are left just anywhere.  So there it was – do I turn on the car, start the air, and walk over to return the cart by myself or take Greenleigh out of her seat, make her walk with me to the return area, and then buckle her in all over again?  I remembered the Dr. Phil episode.  I debated it in my head for what seemed like an eternity.  After all, I could keep my eye on her the entire time I walked the cart over and the air conditioning would be on…but what if [insert all sorts of bad things that could happen in the span of 60 seconds here]…  In the end, I decided to take Greenleigh out of the carseat then walk over and return the cart.

After that day, I learned to unload the groceries first, return the cart, then put Greenleigh in the carseat.   But even with the grocery store figured out, similar situations kept arising.  What about at the post office when I have to drop a letter in the box which is right next to the front door?  How about at the ATM when you have to exit your vehicle?  What about at daycare when the baby is sleeping in the backseat and they have Greenleigh ready and waiting for me at the front door?  What if I have the kids loaded up in the car to go to daycare but remember that I forgot something in the house?  Is it okay to go back and get it?  We live in a townhouse and have a community parking lot, does that change your answer?  These are all situations where I would have to exit the vehicle and walk 30 feet or less.  This all prompted me to ask, “How far is too far?  How far can you walk from your car with your kids inside?  At what point is it no longer okay?”

Occasionally I would ask other moms how they handled these types of situations and they acted like it was no big deal.  One mom told me that she regularly left her infant in the car (with the car running) when she walked into the school to get her older child.  That’s a little too far for my personal comfort zone, but perfectly within theirs. Other moms, like that Dr. Phil audience member, said that there was no comfortable distance.

So I want to know, how do you handle the shopping cart conundrum?  Do you leave your children in the car or take them everywhere with you?  How far is too far for you?

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5 Responses to The Shopping Cart Conundrum

  1. MsXpat says:

    I can see why this would be tough one for some parents, especially if a lone parent and child out on an errand. However, due to my over-active imagination and ‘anxious’ nature, I’d opt to keep my child with me. I like him to be in grasping distance… just in case…

  2. Lisha says:

    Yeah, this is a tough one. Personally, I would maybe go about 10 feet away from the car, but that’s about it if there was a child in there. As long as I was about 3 large steps from the car I would feel safe enough about it. I think the thing is that you never know what could happen. What if some weirdo just HAPPENS to be lurking around? I don’t know. This is a tough situation. And yes, when I was a child, I was left in the car under less desirable circumstances too, it’s just that nowadays ideas have changed, and the world has changed too…

  3. If I can get to my car within seconds and it is never out of my sight I leave my twp girls in the truck, not running, locked, and with alarm. My mind is always watching for any possible real or make believe danger.

  4. This is a tough one. I teach elementary school. One day i went to my car during lunch, and I saw a car, with the windows down, car running and a baby in a carseat, screaming her head off. I went back into the office to ask if they knew whose car it was. I was a mom, who was signing her child out of school for a dental appointment. She was standing in the office waiting for her child to be sent up from the room. I told her if I was a bad person I could have driven away with her child. I was shocked she’d leave the baby like that.

    I’m now following you on Facebook from the Blog it Forward Tuesday hop.
    Jan from J4C Home
    http://www.jewelry4change.blogspot.com

  5. Vanessa says:

    I don’t think she she should have ever been arrested. She didn’t go inside of the store. She didn’t lose sight of the cart. I think it would have been more dangerous to get a sleeping toddler out of a seat during unfavorable weather conditions. However, why didn’t she wait? As with your shopping cart, there are times when you can’t avoid it and you change your process later (keep child in cart while putting groceries away) but what if it’s raining? What if it’s sleeting? In her situation, donating money is something that could have waited. Sometimes better judgement could be used, but this was certainly not a case of neglect.

    I found you on the Thursday Hop. I would love for you to visit my blog and follow me back at http://cooperave.blogspot.com

    Have a great day!

    Vanessa

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