I picked my daughter up at her school this afternoon. While standing in the playground and chatting with one of her teachers, we witnessed one of the most cold-hearted, deliberate acts of cruelty I've (we've?) ever seen.
A mother drove away and left her four year old son standing in the parking lot. Drove away. Deliberately. The little guy screamed and screamed. My daughter's teacher ran out into the parking lot to help him, and he screamed "My mommy drove away and left me!" The teacher led him back into the building, while I and another (real) mommy watched for her return.
She didn't come back. I had to leave; I hope the police got involved.
Update: She came back. Apparently her son had closed the car door without getting in, and she drove away thinking he was in the back seat. She drove several miles before realizing he wasn't in the car.
In the interests of not accumulating too much negative karma, I take back my righteous horror. I hope that I will never be so stupid, but chances are pretty good I will be. Just yesterday I slammed my daughter's finger in the door.
Friday, June 03, 2005
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8 comments:
Wow. I too am stunned. I also hope the police got involved.
What a bizarre story. What do you think was going on?
It's probably good that a teacher witnessed the whole thing because someone needs to call social services and get that family the help they need.
I imagine she was really, really frustrated with a little boy who didn't want to get into the car. Not that that could in any way excuse her behavior.
Hopefully I'll find out more tomorrow. I've been thinking about him all weekend.
Whew. The update is a relief.
Incidentally, my daughter's fingers were slightly compressed by a car door a couple days ago; I wasn't entirely responsible. Hope your daughter's fine.
I'm sorry: now it's negligence instead of malice, but it's still inexcusable. The car door closes and she takes off without looking in the back seat to see that the child is (there) sitting, belted? Four year-olds aren't that consistent, at least not the ones of my acquaintance: some supervision, particularly in the operation of heavy machinery, is warranted. The only consolation is that, having made that mistake, she's highly unlikely to make that mistake again.
OK, she's not going to bump the Schindlers off the "bad parents of the year" list (That's a Terry Schiavo reference, if you cast your minds back), but she's required to surrender any and all chocolates given last Mother's Day to the child.....
Hrm, I think I preferred my mental image of the first scenario (in which I imagined she left the kid on purpose to teach him a lesson, fully planning to come back and get him in 5-10 minutes) to the reality of the update (incompetence).
Either way, she's not getting my vote for Mother of the Year.
Right. She didn't know he wasn't in the car. Because he'd magically transformed into a whisper-quiet 4-year-old. Thereby instantly making him completely unlike every other child his age, ever.
There is a faint whiff of CYA in her story, methinks.
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