What Would You Do?

I was on a jog the other evening when I came upon a minivan with a toddler locked inside screaming, crying and banging on the window.  He was alone in there and I didn’t see any adults in the direct vicinity.  When I say direct vicinity, I mean within visual distance of the minivan.

I stopped.  Of course I stopped.  I wasn’t entirely sure what to do.  Do I try to find someone who belongs to this child?  Do I call the police?  Do I let the child out and ask him where his parents are?  Or do I just keep on jogging and figure that everything is fine. 

When it comes to possible danger or harm to children, I’m never one to “keep on jogging” or mind my own business.  My philosophy is always “better safe than sorry”.  I don’t think my conscience would ever leave me alone if I “kept on jogging”.  I’d be wondering for days and possibly forever if that child was ok or not. 

So, I walked to the backyard of the house and found an older woman at the grill.  I politely said, “Excuse me, there is a crying little boy in that minivan.  Does he belong to you?”  Her response, “oh yes, we just put him in there a minute ago for a time-out.”  I said ok and told her I was just making sure that they knew he was crying in there.  Who knows, maybe he was asleep in his car seat coming home from the store and they decided to let him sleep and now he was awake with no one around.  There are any number of reasons why he could have been in there, but the bottom line for me was to make sure he was ok. 

Did I mention it was one of these wonderful hot days we’ve been having?  I saw a haunting Oprah a couple of years ago about a woman who, wrapped up in her busy morning routine, accidentally left her child in the car on a hot day, all day.  She wasn’t normally the one to take her child to daycare in the morning and completely forgot that her child was in the back seat when she got to her job.  Her child died.  It’s a horrifying story.

This story is why I then decided to hang around a bit to make sure that someone came by to get this little guy out of his “time-out” vehicle.  I decided to call the police just to make sure that someone drove by to make sure everything was ok.  As soon as I started talking to a dispatcher I saw a man, who I’m assuming was his father, come to get him out.  I told the dispatcher all was fine and jogged home. 

I’m sure that little boy is fine and his parents love him very much.  As a mother of a toddler I know how important it is to be firm at times but I’m certain I would never lock my child in the car.  I know I’m bordering on judgmental but it’s hard not to when it comes to a child’s wellbeing. 

There have been a couple of other instances when I have stopped what I was doing to make sure a child was ok.  One of those being when I saw a four-year-old and a baby alone in the back seat of a car in a Bartell’s parking lot for an extending period of time.  I saw them on my way into Bartell’s.  They were still there when I got out.  I didn’t see any adult on the sidewalk nearby checking on them.  That was when I called 911 and made the decision to stay there until I knew everything was fine.  Of course, as soon as I started giving details about location and the car, a 20-something guy came out to the car and drove off.  I asked the 911 operator if there was anything to be done at that point, and unfortunately, there was not.  I was simultaneously glad that someone was with the children but also frustrated that he got away with being so irresponsible.  Anyone could have walked by that car and taken those children, those helpless, innocent and trusting children.

I am fiercely protective of children, especially when it comes to their inability to defend themselves in an adult world.  I know that there are a lot of different parenting styles, personalities and child behaviors out there, but if I have any doubts whatsoever about a child’s well being you can bet I will poke my nose in and make sure they are ok.  I would rather help a child or make sure that he/she doesn’t need my help and risk offending or angering a parent than ignore my gut or good sense and hope that everything is ok.  Children have no choice but to depend on the adults around them.  I believe that we are not only responsible for our own children’s wellbeing but for the wellbeing of all children.  We owe them that.