I would like to share my story, and how the letter about technology to alert parents could really help even the most vigilant parents. I am writing because I lived through exactly the kind of scare that letter described, and I know firsthand how easily it can happen to anyone.
I used to drive my daughter’s carpool for 4th grade. At the time, I had a 12 passenger vehicle. One cold winter morning, I picked up all 5 kids for carpool, just like I did every day. We had a long 45 minute ride to school. Anyone who has driven a morning carpool knows the routine: the chatter, the backpacks, the rush to get everyone there on time.
We arrived at school, the kids opened the door, and everyone got out. Or so I thought. I drove the 45 minutes back home, assuming the morning had gone exactly as it always did.
When I walked in, I was greeted by a phone call. BH, the school called me and asked if “Shira” was in carpool. I said, yes, I picked her up. They then said, “Please check your car, she isn’t in school….”
With a racing heart, I ran out and checked my whole van. Lo and behold, this 4th grader had fallen asleep in the back seat of my 12 passenger, and I never realized she didn’t get out when all the other kids left. She had been sitting in my driveway the entire time.
BARUCH HASHEM, it resolved just fine. It was winter, so the car never became dangerously hot, and if and when the child would have woken up on her own, she was old enough to open the door and get out of the car herself.
But I can’t stop thinking about how easily different it could have been. Had it been a hot summer day instead of a cold winter morning, had it been a younger child, a toddler strapped into a car seat who couldn’t free herself, this story could have ended in unimaginable tragedy. I was an attentive, experienced carpool driver. I counted on the kids getting out together like they always did. And it still happened to me.
That is exactly why the technology mentioned in that letter matters. No parent or driver thinks it can happen to them, until it does. A simple alert system that reminds a driver to check the back seats could be the difference between a frightening phone call and a devastating one. If my story convinces even one person to take this seriously, it was worth sharing.
Thank you.
Signed,
Shoshanah
The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.
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4 Responses
I think people are different with different energies. I don’t think there’s one size fits all and any person that fits into the ADHD “diagnosis”
Show me someone ADHD and I’ll prob see someone with a lot of energy that needs to be diverted to something meaningful. We need to stop with all this victim mindset. Blaming names we give ourselves or our own behaviors on a set of diagnosis that someone else decided for us.
It’s psedo “feel bad for me I’m inherinitly flawed and there’s nothing I can do”. No two people are the same. Alot of diagnosis arnt based in strict grounded wisdom because human behavior isn’t set in stone but can be honed an directed.
Just because someone missed your call just means they have other things that they are busy with.
I’m kind of sick of this psedo science system that fits everybody into neat boxes and then tries to get everybody to feel emotional about it.
You cannot confine people into neat boxes. Everybody has different streighths and weakness the question is how will you deal with it and how will they deal with it. Feeling bad for yourself cuz someone else forgot to text you back cuz they were busy is acting first like a victim second it’s an easy way to carpamentlize and say they are “problem” when they are not.
Schools just recently began to electronically take attendance and alert parents by 9:30 that their child hadn’t arrived to school. Absolutely brilliant!
This might sound offensive, but that is not the intent. Technology can be a wonderful thing, making difficult tasks easier, increasing accuracy, saving time. Aside from negatives, our dependency on technology needs to be addressed. Any driver should be aware of occupants of the vehicle, before, during, and after doing a run. A gadget that gives a reminder might actually help, but it also makes us less attentive to necessary details of our jobs. Accidents happen l”o, but the truest hishtadlus is our honing our attention, not activating electronic devices.
This is just a general comment not addressing any specific person here.
I’m sorry everyone, I know what y’all gonna say after reading this, aren’t you going a bit to far, be more sensitive, YWN shouldn’t have posted this etc etc etc.
But I’m not apologizing for having rachmunes on a little child/baby.
Why is it that we don’t forget a tub of ice cream in the car especially when it’s extremely hot, but yet when it comes to a precious ne’shomah we have all kinds of excuses, like Don’t judge me I’m going through a lot! Aren’t we all going through a lot?
Another one I always hear, “easy for you to say, you don’t know what it is like being a single parent (either way) and juggling back and forth, here and there”.
What kind of an excuse is that, tell that to the unresponsive child in a car that felt like 115 degrees.
The worst I’ve ever heard was, things happen for a reason and we don’t understand why, how dare you of even thinking like that.
There are 101 other excuses in the book, and non of them will ever justify a reason to leave a child in a car cold or hot.
Had this happen once or twice which that in itself is too many I might roll my eyes and “maybe” kept my mouth shut, but every summer and I mean literally every summer there is another story here or abroad that a child was left in a hot car and …….
So please please I’m begging you with all my heart let’s get through this summer without any more of these horrible situations.
Thank you