On Monday an unconscious child was rescued from a locked car, parked at one of our local shopping malls.
Reports say that the child had been left unattended for hours.
My initial reaction was outrage, combined with that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
What were the parents thinking? But before I rush to judge them I have to remind myself.
That. Could. Have. Been. My. Child.
A few months ago my hubby had collected the boys from school and we all had lunch together at home.
The boys disappeared to play outside and I got busy with something. Perhaps catching up on emails.
Unbeknown to me my youngest child, aged four, had climbed into the car to play and decided to hide in the back of our Toyota Fortuner.
He did not make a squeak when I climbed in to head back to work. I had assumed he was playing with his older brother under the watchful eye of his nanny.
Later he told me he had been hiding, intending to surprise me.
We definitely had our guardian angels working overtime that day because, thankfully, it was a cold day and I parked in the underground parking area at the office.
Almost two hours later I returned to the vehicle to discover Ruben just waking from a nap.
My boy was unharmed and completely unaware how much danger he had been in.
I was beside myself with horror at what could have been.
What if it had been a hot day? What if I had parked outside? What ifs can drive you mad.
A motor vehicle is a metal box that heats up like an oven when parked in direct sunlight or in high temperature conditions. On a hot day, the temperature inside a parked car can be as much as 40°C hotter than it is outside.
When cars are parked, it takes fewer than five minutes for them to heat to temperatures that can seriously harm children, often fatally.
Children can also not regulate their body temperature as well as adults can, and can suffer from heatstroke, rapid dehydration and suffocation.
I had been guilty off three errors that day – not locking the car when I arrived home, not checking where Ruben was before leaving and finally, not checking my car for uninvited passengers. As unlikely as it may seem, children are relentlessly unpredictable.
I once thought it would be okay to leave a child (windows open, weather cool, etc) just for a few minutes while I dashed into the store. Now I know this was a grave error of judgement.
The possibilities for something to go wrong may seem ridiculously small, but that is simply too great a risk to take.
My heart goes out to those parents. How close they came to losing their most precious possession.
But please don’t get me wrong, leaving your child in a vehicle for an extended period is never okay.
***
The world appears to be gripped by royal fever again.
I don’t mind the British royals, in fact I loved ‘The Crown’ series on Netflix.
But honestly, when articles pop up on my news feed portals titled ‘King Charles told Harry that Meghan was not welcome at Queen’s bedside’ and then there are the body language experts analysing Kate and William not holding hands, I have to sigh.
Even Oprah is doling out advice for Harry and Meghan. It feels as if the whole world is caught up in this never ending soap opera.
We all need a little escapism, I suppose.
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