« Time Warp memories | Main | "Or else" parenting »

May 05, 2004

Comments

Lady

The only problem here is that the 15-year old didn't realize she would be babysitting for three children. Why is it wrong, though, to leave a monitor with someone in the next apartment? What is the difference between doing that and leaving a monitor with someone in a large single family home?

Marcia Lynx Qualey

Yikes.

I haven't yet left Isaac with a babysitter, and now you've gone and terrified me. :-)

Kira

and just think, as bad of parents as they were, there are worse.
i say, throw the book at them.

Melissa

Jess, I think that's asking a lot of a typical teenager to stand up to adults and tell them they are wrong.

Certainly it would be ideal, blaming a 15 year old for not making a better choice than adults, parents is a little much.

Susan

That is truly horrifying! If they were so determined to go out, why didn't they just bring the kids over to the same house? UN-BE-LIEV-A-BLE!

We just had a situation here where the parents left their children (ages 7 and 9) sleeping so they could go out and party on New Year's Eve. There was a fire and both children died.

I would definitely have called CPS. Those parents seriously deserve to have CPS involved if they are that irresponsible. It's just like seatbelts - if the parents are so irresponsible as to not belt their children in the car, then they should be punished for it. Better the parents pay a fine than the children pay with their lives.

Whenever I hear these kinds of stories I think there ought to be a test you need to pass before you can become a parent.

Angie

Yes I agree that it was a terrible thing to do and I would think that had the authorities known about it they would have agreed.

Jess

I agree, like everyone else, that it's a horrible situation and that the mom did the right thing. However, as a 20-year-old who has been babysitting and otherwise working with children since age 11, I have to wonder - why in the world did the 15-year-old acquiesce?? Not only is she 'watching' two more children unexpectedly, but if she is judged (by her own parents, not the neighbors) responsible enough to be babysitting in the first place, she must have also had an idea of all the things that could happen - at least, I would hope so. I think she should have simply spoken up and flat-out refused to be put in such a situation. She would probably never have been asked to babysit again, but who wants to be put in a position of responsibility by irresponsible people, anyway?

...Of course, if these people are as white-trashy as they sound like, they would probably have still gone out and just taken the baby monitor along with them. Ugh.

Chasmyn

In Missouri it is definitely illegal. It's considered abandonment and child endangerment. CPS ought to have been caled, and definitely the mother that spoke up was right. Legally and morally.

daddydaycare

In California, that is illegal. In fact, in California, it's illegal to leave a kid in a car alone, locked or not. Of course, if a parent(s) doesn't have the common sense to figure out that it's not a good idea, then what good is the law? And what is the "babysitter" supposed to do if something goes wrong? Leave the child she's getting paid to watch? Sad.

Kim

Totally unacceptable. Some people are truly idiots.

Elise

Ugh, that gave me the shivers. Horrifying.

toni

Ditto what Martha said. I know that here (Louisiana) it is a crime to leave a child under 9 years old alone and unsupervised. It probably isn't as enforced as it should be, but I would have done the same: called the parents, told them that this was negligence and that I wasn't going to allow them to put my daughter in a position where she might not be able to help children who were hurt behind locked doors. What if one woke up? Started crying? Got scared? Decided to go look for mom and fell? Got hurt out of the sound range of the monitor?

This is appalling.

Martha

How awful. I understand that there is a gray area when children are somewhat older -- some people are comfortable leaving a 10 year old home alone for a while, some aren't. But that situation? Totally unacceptable.

I would be hesitant to call the police or social services immediately, but if I were that mother, I would have called the parents, told them that those young children being left home alone was completely unacceptable and irresponsible, said that I was going over to sit my butt down on their porch and make sure that those little kids were safe, and that if they weren't home within 20 minutes to take care of their children, then I WOULD be calling the police.

Melissa

Wow.

I guess mostly I'm just happy with my own choices and i'm glad I wouldn't make that choice for myself or my kids.

Emily

That is awful.I would have done the same thing.

The comments to this entry are closed.

DotMoms Daily

    follow me on Twitter