A 6-month-old boy died after being left for hours in a hot car in Louisiana, authorities said.

A 6-month-old boy died after being left for hours in a hot car in Louisiana, authorities said.

The baby was found dead in the backseat by his parent at about 5:46 p.m. Tuesday, according to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

When the parent went to pick up the baby from day care after work, they realized they forgot to drop him off at day care that morning, the sheriff’s office said.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    558·
    2 months ago

    When the parent went to pick up the baby from day care after work, they realized they forgot to drop him off at day care that morning

    I do not buy it, but if it is true, that poor baby was going to die from neglect and soon even if it didn’t happen then.

    When my daughter was a baby, I was constantly checking on her while we were driving (at stoplights, don’t get all het up) and I was very aware when she was in the car with me.

    Some people should not be allowed to be parents.

    • Thrillhouse@lemmy.world
      32·
      2 months ago

      There’s actually a great article on this. Warning, it’s a TOUGH read.

      Archive link

      What kind of person forgets a baby? The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate[…]

      Last year it happened three times in one day, the worst day so far in the worst year so far in a phenomenon that gives no sign of abating.

      The facts in each case differ a little, but always there is the terrible moment when the parent realizes what he or she has done, often through a phone call from a spouse or caregiver. This is followed by a frantic sprint to the car. What awaits there is the worst thing in the world.

      It’s a shockingly common occurrence and actually not due to neglect a lot of the time. The article posits that a large reason is because car seats were mandated to be moved to the back seat.

      • tiramichu@lemm.ee
        10·
        2 months ago

        It’s such a painful thing, and the scary truth is that it can happen to anyone.

        I’m sure we’ve all experienced instances of this, in some smaller and insignificant way.

        You take a packed lunch to work. Every day for five years you’ve taken a lunch to work, without fail. Its part of your routine, you don’t even have to think about it. Get your wallet, get your keys, lunch out the fridge and into your bag, out the door.

        Then one day you open your bag at lunch-time, and it’s not there. Why isn’t it there, you think? You remember putting it there like always, but then the memories of different days are all the same as each other, and it just blurs into one.

        And then you remember. Just as you picked up your wallet and keys, your phone rang. And it’s your Dad, who says he just had someone call to say he needs to transfer money to keep it safe, and you’re telling him no no no Dad it’s just a scam, don’t transfer anything! And you have to go or you’ll miss the bus, and did I get my lunch, yes yes I put it in my bag like always.

        But you didn’t put it in your bag. Its still sitting in the fridge at home.

        And obviously a lunch is not a baby. But the principle is the same. That frightening realisation that your own brain didn’t merely forget, but actually lied to you about what really happened that morning is the same.

        And it could have been a baby instead.

        Scary.

    • waddle_dee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      714·
      2 months ago

      I’m in the same boat as you. I was more understanding before I had a child. I thought, you can forget your phone, autopilot, all other excuses. But after having two, there’s no fucking way I’d ever forget them. They’re always on my mind and the first thing I think of whenever I’m doing anything. I check on my children while driving too ☺️

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        321·
        2 months ago

        Looks like a bunch of people (I’m guessing non-parents) disagree.

        The whole idea of forgetting a baby is in the car is insane. Like I said, even if it is true, this person is not fit to take care of a baby and that baby had a good chance of dying some other way.

        • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
          21·
          2 months ago

          Looks like a bunch of people (I’m guessing non-parents) disagree.

          I am a parent and disagree. Surprised myself at least twice by arriving at work and seeing her still in the seat while grabbing the sun shade. Could have sworn that she had been dropped off both times.

          People aren’t perfect, and something being important doesn’t mean people suddenly become perfect. The fact that it is as rare as it is now is a sign that people take it seriously, but people make mistakes no matter how important the thing is.

        • SeaJ@lemm.ee
          17·
          2 months ago

          Not insane at all. Child seats should be rear facing for quite a while and if the kid is asleep, they are not making any sounds. A big deviation from your routine can seriously fuck up remembering basic things. I personally have a mirror strapped to the rear headrest to avoid anything like that since I can see her every time I check my rear view mirror. But I’ve had people warm me how dangerous those are because it is an extra thing to break off in an accident. I’d rather take that risk than accidentally leave my child in a hot car.

        • Thrillhouse@lemmy.world
          11·
          2 months ago

          From the Pulitzer article (please read it):

          Diamond is a professor of molecular physiology at the University of South Florida and a consultant to the veterans hospital in Tampa.[…]

          “Memory is a machine,” he says, “and it is not flawless. Our conscious mind prioritizes things by importance, but on a cellular level, our memory does not. If you’re capable of forgetting your cellphone, you are potentially capable of forgetting your child.”

          “The quality of prior parental care seems to be irrelevant,” he said. “The important factors that keep showing up involve a combination of stress, emotion, lack of sleep and change in routine, where the basal ganglia is trying to do what it’s supposed to do, and the conscious mind is too weakened to resist. What happens is that the memory circuits in a vulnerable hippocampus literally get overwritten, like with a computer program. Unless the memory circuit is rebooted – such as if the child cries, or, you know, if the wife mentions the child in the back – it can entirely disappear.”

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            411·
            2 months ago

            You posted the article after I posed the above comment. I have read it.

            Edit: to the downvoters: should I have not read it? Because I get you downvoting the previous comments but I’m not sure what your problem is with this one.

            • Thrillhouse@lemmy.world
              8·
              2 months ago

              Hickling is a clinical psychologist from Albany, N.Y., who has studied the effects of fatal auto accidents on the drivers who survive them. He says these people are often judged with disproportionate harshness by the public, even when it was clearly an accident, and even when it was indisputably not their fault.

              Humans, Hickling said, have a fundamental need to create and maintain a narrative for their lives in which the universe is not implacable and heartless, that terrible things do not happen at random, and that catastrophe can be avoided if you are vigilant and responsible.

              In hyperthermia cases, he believes, the parents are demonized for much the same reasons. “We are vulnerable, but we don’t want to be reminded of that. We want to believe that the world is understandable and controllable and unthreatening, that if we follow the rules, we’ll be okay. So, when this kind of thing happens to other people, we need to put them in a different category from us. We don’t want to resemble them, and the fact that we might is too terrifying to deal with. So, they have to be monsters.”

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                55·
                2 months ago

                Yes, again, I read it. You showed I was wrong. I’m not sure what you or anyone else wants from me.

                • TheFonz@lemmy.world
                  41·
                  2 months ago

                  It’s Ok. I think it’s easy to dismiss obvious situations such as these, but as a tired parent I can tell you the mind will play tricks on you. I always triple check everything because I know I’m already exhausted. I can’t fault another parent for a mistake though.