I’ll never understand this. Why would a loving parent leave a small child alone in their car? Even for a minute. There is no errand so important that you must endanger your child in order to perform. There is no excuse for this – Newborn dies in car fire.
As the father of a five year-old, I can’t justify this and I won’t try. I’ve never left my little boy in the car alone. When I run errands with my child, he gets out of the car when I do. There is simply no other option. If I go to the post office, he comes in with me. If I leave my car to go to the window to pay for my gas (at those ancient stations still lacking credit card pumps), he comes with me. I don’t leave him alone and I don’t understand parents who would. I don’t just “trust” that he’ll be alright. I KNOW that he’ll be alright because he’s with me, not in the car, where I can’t see him or hear him.
There is no valid excuse for leaving your child unattended anywhere. Not at the post office, the gas station or the 7-Eleven. If you can’t take your child with you when you get out of your vehicle, then you need to keep your ass at home. This taking care of kids stuff isn’t for lazy, inattentive idiots who leave children unattended in cars. Further, if you view the prospect of taking your child out of your car when you leave your vehicle as too big a hassle to deal with, then you need to take your sorry ass to the pharmacy and invest in some birth control. Or practice abstinence.