LogFAQs > #906478787

I'm not so quick to condemn every parent that leaves their child in a car. Lots of people have routines or daily habits. Your brain gets wired to run through your usual routines.

Let's say that 95% of the time, the mother brings the child to daycare, but mom has a dentist appointment and asks the father to do it. Father gets the kid in the car, kid falls asleep and isn't making any noise, father goes to work out of habit... You see where I'm going. It could happen to anyone.

Not all cases are like that, but some are, and those are the ones that lead me to believe the parents have suffered enough. They have to live with that immense guilt for the rest of their lives. What good would a prison term do? Especially if they have other kids, then you're just hurting the family further. Nothing can bring the child back once they're gone, and I don't believe justice for the child should include punishing the whole family more than they've already endured.

In cases where people run into Walmart and shop for 45 minutes, knowingly leaving kids in the car because they think they'll just run in and out real quick and don't want to disturb their nap? Yeah, fuck those people.

But there are most certainly cases where the parents made a genuine mistake. An egregious, terrible mistake, absolutely. But a mistake nonetheless. And they've most certainly suffered more in their own guilt and incompetence than any prison sentence could possibly make for more "sensible" justice.
---

https://imgur.com/ZwO4qO2
Bluer than velvet was the night... Softer than satin was the light... From the stars...