The
woman lowered her voice. She sounded embarrassed, even ashamed. Earlier
this week, she said, she let her kids, ages 5 and 2, wait in the car
while she ran into UPS to drop off a package. This took all of a minute
or two, but when she told her husband about it that night, he said,
"That was so dangerous! Promise me you'll never do that again!" Why
was it "so dangerous"? Answer: It wasn't. It was only dangerous if some
very strange, unpredictable thing happened, like a predator passing by
just that very instant who was eagle-eyed, lightning quick and
desperate for two very young kids at once. Does that husband have
any idea how rare -- nay, almost unheard of -- that scenario is? Just
do some quick math: There are 60 million children age 15 and under in
America. FBI statistics show that about 115 are kidnapped by strangers
per year -- possibly fewer, since that number comes from 1999, and
crime has been dropping for a decade. As unlikely as that predator
scenario is, it plays on infinite loop in a lot of folks' heads. What
I'd like to see is a NEW scenario playing there beside it. This one: Earlier
this week (May 3) in New Zealand, a mom of three also left her children
in the car as she ran a quick errand. Completely out of the blue, a
tornado struck. The mom looked out the shop window and saw her car
GONE. According to a report in the New Zealand Herald, the tornado had
picked it up, flung it as high as the top of the shopping center, and
then dropped it about 50 yards from its original parking space. Upside down. Amazingly -- wonderfully -- all the kids inside were fine, thanks to being strapped into their car seats. Now
imagine what might have happened if, instead of ducking into the store
solo, the mom had painstakingly unbuckled each of the kids from their
car seats to take them in with her, as parents are constantly exhorted
to do. There's at least a decent chance that she and they would have
been outside, right next to the car -- or inside and unstrapped -- when
the tornado struck. They could have been slammed into the car, or
tossed around inside it, or even lifted up just like the car was, flung
through the sky and dumped on their heads. It's a wild scenario --
extremely unlikely, but possible. Which is why I'd like parents and
busybodies to give it equal time with the pouncing predator before they
yell at parents who let their kids wait, briefly, in cars. The
concern over kids in cars is growing exponentially in our country.
There are articles and websites telling parents that it is NEVER safe
to leave a child in a car, even for an instant, lest the child be
snatched or suffer hyperthermia. These warnings always state the number
of children who die in parked cars each year -- about 40 -- but they
never state the number of children killed by being taken OUT of cars. So
I looked it up. There are about 229 children killed each year in
driveways and parking lots. So why it is safer to drag them out of the
car than to keep them in is anybody's guess. Here's mine. We like
worrying about children and we like warning parents that if they do
anything that smacks of convenience or common sense, they are bad. It
makes us feel smug and helpful. It makes parents feel fearful and
incompetent. Personally, the next time someone suggests I can't make
my own safety calculations for my kids, I will tell him to go fly a
kite. Or car.
Lenore
Skenazy is the author of "Free-Range Kids: How to Raise Safe,
Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry)," and, "Who's the
Blonde That Married What's-His-Name? The Ultimate Tip-of-the-Tongue
Test of Everything You Know You Know -- But Can't Remember Right Now."
To find out more about Lenore Skenazy (Lskenazy@yahoo.com) and read
features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the
Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM
