 |
|
|
|
|
Do you know where your child is?
By Moryt Milo
Brian Palmer Gilbert forgot his 5-month-old son in the car and three hours later found the infant dead. Drugs or alcohol didn't impair Gilbert. On the contrary, he was completely lucid. His only explanation was that he simply forgot. How in the world is that possible?
Wouldn't you have thought that sometime during those three hours Gilbert spent watching television with his relatives, one of them would have asked about his son? How could he not remember or even think about where his son, Kyle, was?
Am I being critical? You bet.
During the first five years of my daughter's life, I was a textbook case of sleep deprivation. During this time, I often felt I was sleepwalking through my day. In my zombie state, I easily lost my train of thought in mid-sentence. I frequently misplaced stuff around the house. If I didn't carry a list into a store, chances were better than even money I'd forget something. But not remember my own child sitting in the car? I don't think so!
During those same five years when my son became part of the child towing equation, there where probably a zillion times I wished I could just run into the market, the drugstore, the cleaners, anywhere without unbuckling my child and taking him along, but I didn't.
I confess there was one occasion when I would break the rules. If I could pull up right in front of an ATM machine, with no lines, jump out, punch in my pin number and grab my money and go. [No, I never left the keys in the car or kept the motor running.] Otherwise, the usual five to 10 minute errands took twice as long. It's simply a parenting fact of life and one that all parents have to willingly accept.
So what's going on? Lately there have been a number of infants and small children who have died in locked hot cars because their parents forgot about them. That is absolutely frightening. It leads one to wonder irrationally, "What the heck kinds of vehicles are these folks driving? How big can their car be that they don't see a child in a car seat when they go to lock their doors?"
Reports continue to frequent the news about numerous children whose parents thought they dropped them off at daycare, only to have left them forgotten in parked cars while going about their day.
Then there are parents who loose track of how many kids they have and "misplace" one, who is later found lifeless while still strapped to his or her car seat. And the horrific report about two fathers who took their infant daughters on a hunting trip and left them in the car while they went out to enjoy their sport. Upon their return both children were dead.
How could these people be so irresponsible with their children's lives? Are they so incredibly distracted or stressed out with their own lives that their children's existence has literally taken a backseat to theirs?
I look at the face of Gilbert on the front page of the paper. This guy looks completely distraught, as he's arrested for involuntary manslaughter. Well, how else could he be? His life has been thrown into the absolute Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde moment. But is going to prison the solution?
As a parent, part of me screams, "Oh yes!" But there is that other part of me, which can only imagine the living hell this guy will be in for the rest of his life. For this man, prison will forever exist whether his walls are physical or not. Unquestionably this tragedy will be his eternal cross to bear.
The issue here is bigger than Brian Palmer Gilbert. The issue is getting the message out to all the Palmer Gilberts of the world, creating an immediate campaign with a stingingly clear and concise message.
Although Safeway has started an awareness campaign on milk cartons and shopping bags; big, bold, in-your-face words need to be posted on billboards along freeways, shopping centers, and business campuses. The message needs to scream: "Don't leave your children in the car, EVER!" And right underneath it should reiterate, "Be a responsible parent. Your child is depending on you."
Contact Moryt Milo via email at morytb@aol.com.
|
|
|
|
Campbell, California
