We sensationalize violence in America so everyone is afraid to let their kids out of eye sight for longer than a minute until they are the age of 18 or so. People will call the cops if you let you kid go to a local park without an adult. Everyone says "It's not like it use to be when we were kids, things are far worse." If they looked at the actual crime rates they would see crime rates were the highest when we were kids and going to the store or to the park alone. But the 24 hour news media has every parent convinced that their kid is about to be stolen and murdered if they can't track them via GPS 24 hours a day.

Lily Lu - Americans are very afraid of stranger kidnappings, so we never let our kids out of our sight. Most Americans don't really have a childhood until we are 32 years old and able to buy an ATV. You can see how uptight we are by how many downvotes you have! I tried to remedy the situation, but only have one vote to give.

IMO? Yes, in the US at least. There's this weird idea that if you leave a child alone for 1 second, a pedophile will take the child, or a serial killer will. Yet the most common culprit in a kidnap is a non-custodial parent., per FBI stats.

I've heard about situations where someone stole a car from the front of a store where they didn't realize there was a kid in the car. Usually the child is found safe. It's considered irresponsible to leave your infant in the car without supervision and can get you in trouble by Child Protective Agency depending on how long they were there. Leaving the door unlocked leaves the possibility of anyone taking the unattended child. It's common sense here.

Here there have been plenty of cases of stolen cars where the stupid parent has left the car running with the kid or kids in it just like this moron did and the car has been nicked with the kids in it and driven away. Fobs and push button starts don’t stop it either as modified fobs car thieves use can over ride it

It’s a bit about the laws here really. The thing he’s likely worried about is kidnapping (or in extreme weather, the child can die. We have had quite a bit of that here.). What he’s really got to worry about is someone reporting her to the police. She would likely lose her child.

I live in Southern Arizona, where it is usually 100+ degrees F during the summer. In the car, it can easily get up to more than 130+ degrees F. In fact, it's so hot that you could literally cook eggs or bacon inside a hot car. Point is, it's extremely unsafe and inhumane to leave a child in the car. If the AC is on, that's better but it's still not great.

I have heard of this and it is very interesting to me. I am 40 and live in rural united states, and all throughout my childhood and with raising my own children, I’ve erred in the side of caution with leaving kids unattended in public settings. It would be interesting to read more on this custom.

Nordic countries are safe enough to do this, but most parts of the US are not. Plus, in the summer, it can get hot enough in a car left out in the sun to kill someone in there. Even in the northern states.

It's more of a car element to it. Stolen vehicles are common, and the baby would have to be lucky to return after. Not to mention carbon monoxide from a running car, and weather/extreme temperatures(because the key fob only lets the car run for 10 min when not in the car). A careless driver could be the car in the lot and the mom would know the force or take the infant in to assess possible injury. Also kidnapping as addressed. So many things.

Yea, so this didn't happen in a Nordic country, so there's that. Do you have any idea how many cars are stolen every year with a child in it? No, of course you don't.

More a climate component, I'd say! It gets far hotter in parts of the USA than it ever does in Scandinavia. Heatstroke can kill a baby very easily. Also, car theft and "joyriding" are basically epidemic in certain parts of the US, and most don't check to see if there's a baby in the back before they take someone's car.

Cops are the last people who should be called. Frankly, they don't tend to help most situations and would've likely only led to CPS involvement for this family. I think what dad did was a bit extreme but not undeserved. Mom sounds like she's struggling with some postpartum issues and it seems like this is headed in the right direction so that things will change and they can heal.

What I thought, after she was told not to leave the child in the car and did it again, was that she knows fully well what she's doing and probably hopes someone will take the baby. My first reaction was that she has mental issues and might not be able to cope with exhaustion too. It could be postnatal depression for all we know. If she was generally neglectful the OP would have mentioned it. Calling the police or CPS is OK if you are sure it's warranted and are willing to put up with months or years of scrutiny afterwards.