Hellobee Boards

This breaks my heart, I understand completely why she did this.

This is why I feel that a year long maternity leave isn't the answer in our country. We need a longer maternity leave coupled with affordable, accessible childcare, for both short term and long term situations. Granted, I know it's difficult to just get comfortable leaving my child somewhere that he's never been before, so I don't think the answer is simple.

@bunnylove08: She should have them taken away for right now because she obviously has a serious lack of understanding on how to keep her kids safe. But with some counseling, if she seems to understand why she did is NEVER okay, then she should get them back.

I don't think she should have her children taken away.

To those of you saying she shouldn't have her kids taken away, what if one of them had died? They were 6 mo and 2 years old (not old enough to get out of their seats and open the door in case of emergency. She left them parked in direct sunlight, with the car off, and with the windows only cracked. This was phoenix arizona. I just looked at the weather report for last week there, and it was in the mid 80s. She didn't get back to her car for 45 min after the witness saw her kids, which means she was gone at least that long (possibly much longer). I mean, this was not putting your kid in a car seat with a puffy coat on. This was putting your babies in an oven.

I'm sure she was desparate, although obviously that's definitely not ok. Sounds like she needs help and some parenting classes but I don't think she should have them taken away long term. Certainly some oversight from a social worker or something though.

I'm kind of surprised she didn't just leave them at home alone if she was going to leave them unsupervised somewhere.

@mrbee: It's not like she left them in the car to run in and pay for gas or get a gallon of milk at the convenient store… she was gone almost an hour (at least)

I'm confused, 6 years or 6 months? I feel like these are two entirely different situations.

I think she had a HUGE lapse in judgement. I do think she needs some serious parenting courses, because even though she is desperate leaving a 2 year old and 6 month old in a car that long is awful, and terrifying. If it was a 6 year old and 2 year old I feel like it would have been a pretty bad choice but would not warrant having her children taken away but would need some parenting courses or some sort of punishment/support/training or something.

@bunnylove08: I don't know the details, but honestly, if she was a single mom with no one to watch them, left them in the car to try to get a job to keep a roof over their heads and left her 22month old strapped in their car seat with a 6 year old to watch them/get help if something happened, I don't think the kids should have been taken away. It would have been more dangerous to leave them home alone, 45mins alone put them in less danger than being homeless. Unfortunately we don't have much in the way if services for people until it's too late- until they're on the street, they've already had to make risky choices. My heart hurts for her having to make that call and for her children being torn away from their mother.

Her mugshot is devastating. It was wrong, but I feel for her. I would not make a good juror in this case.

@Mae: So what other options would you offer up?

If I were that desperate to get an interview, I would take the kids in with me and risk being turned away. I'd rather risk the job than my kid's life.

@looch: If she doesn't have a single person who can watch her kids for her for for an hour, and she can't pay a babysitter for 1 hour, and she doesn't have any way of getting a job without having childcare for her kids, so that the ONLY option is to put your child's life in danger or not have enough money to feed them? She needs to go talk to a social worker and see if there are local programs that can help her. And if not? She needs to voluntarily give them up temporarily. If you literally cannot keep your child safe, even if it isn't your fault, the best option is to sacrifice keeping them with you for a short period of time to get your life in order. NOT endanger their lives so you don't have to be separated from them.

@hellocupcake: me too.

@HLK208: Totally. I don't think they should take her kids away FOREVER. And that really rarely happens. I seriously doubt they will even prosecute the case unless she seems unrepentant (which judging from her pic she is not). They will probably just work with her to get her life in order and give her her kids back as soon as it is safe for them to be with her.

I don't have much sympathy, it's a local story for me, the more I hear about it, the worse the situation sounds- plus we have a local chain of day cares here that constantly advertise that they will watch your kids for free if you have a job interview.

We also have kids die here all the time from being left in cars. It has been very warm the past couple weeks, kids could have easily died if left in a car for too long. I've worked with too many pets left in hot cars, very few with good endings- it is a horrible, horrible way to die.

@lemondrop: That's good to know, about the drop in center! But would you actually use it for your kids, assuming that they've never been there before? My son wouldn't react well to that, for sure (not to say i would leave him in the car as an alternative).

@Mae: I honestly don't know how to reply to you, it's almost as though you see things only through a legal lens and you don't want to accept the human element in this situation.

@MsLipGloss: the crazy thing is, this happens ALL the time at my son's preschool. The mom's will "run" in for pick-up leaving younger siblings in the car. The parents socialize, or they have to talk to the teachers inside, etc. it can 20+ minutes for pick-up. These are highly educated, wealthy parents in their thirties and forties. It blows my mind! I think it happens more often than we think.