We have all been there. Your little bundle of joy falls asleep on your drive and then you find yourself in the parking lot of your destination with a baby who is sound asleep.
I have definitely had a snoozing infant in my backseat before, so I would hit the drive-thru to give baby a few more minutes of shut-eye before we head in to do our shopping.
One mom didn’t have the time to wait for her baby to wake up before heading into the store to do her shopping- but she did have time to write a note.
Daily Mail
The message, written from the baby’s perspective, included the woman’s cell phone number and urged people to call her if necessary.
The infant sat in the baby seat wearing a warm hat and wrapped in a pink blanket with the note on top clearly in the sight of people who would walk past.
The note read, “My mum’s in doing the shopping, call her if I need anything.”
A man spotted the note at 9 AM on Saturday morning after parking his family next to the car and said, “We waited there for a little bit, wondering if the mum was just going to be two seconds and come back.”
That’s when his wife said she wasn’t going in to do her shopping without someone watching the baby.
Passing by, 2 others agreed to wait by the vehicle in the Pak ‘n Save parking lot in New Zealand after one of them called the mother and told her to come back.
Daily Mail
The picture was posted on Facebook by radio DJ Polly Gillespie and the it sparked outrage on the social media community.
“I’m sorry this is completely irresponsible! You do not leave children under the age of 14 unsupervised at all,” Facebook user Cat Marie Horne wrote. “Why did she have time to write a note?? Secondly, you do not put a capsule seat in the front of a car, due to dashboard airbags. Also, if you are that tired you should not be driving.”
A parent or guardian who leaves a child alone under the age of 14 can be fined up to $2,000.
Police have said that they have not received any reports of the incident, so have so they have not started to investigate as of yet.
“We don’t know who the people are, we don’t know the phone number, we don’t know where to start,” said a spokesperson from the police. “We would launch an investigation if we could but at this stage no one’s come forward.”
He said while a situation like this could be dangerous, many cases like this have an “innocent” explanation.
“Absolutely [it should be reported to police], but it doesn’t mean to say we’d prosecute. I would suggest the majority of people in that situation aren’t prosecuted,” he said.
National Child Safety adviser Sue Campbell warned parents of the risk of leaving a baby or child alone in a car.
“Babies can dehydrate quickly and become very distressed. So for a newborn that’s one of the key issues,” she said. “Plus there’s a security issue – a small baby is unable to defend itself if need be, or call for help, or anything like that.”
What do you think of the mother’s actions? Should she be charged?