All the News That's Fit to Print

Yesterday, there was a news story that a 50 year old man spent six hours gambling, while his 21-month old child was left locked in a car. This is purely awful, and despite my best efforts at compassion in general, I honestly can't conceive of a world where I would find myself making a set of choices that would lead to that result. Thank goodness the boy is with Child Services now, and thank goodness that someone heard him crying in the car & called the police.

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That being said, the somewhat trite* abbreviaton of the news story typically reads : "After father spends 6 hours at casino, authorities rescue toddler locked in car. Conditions were freezing, and the boy didn't even have shoes or socks on." My first thought - the thought that tells you that I spend time with a toddler - is "Of COURSE he's not wearing sock or shoes, he's been alone for six hours! Have you ever tried to keep socks on a toddler?". I suspect that a majority of the time at the daycare, the workers are trying to keep the kids from taking their socks** off.

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I'm a little appalled that my first reaction isn't outrage. But it's not. My first thought is "Of COURSE he's not wearing socks!" Outrage is next, but the first reaction is totally about trying to keep footwear on kids. Gack, I'm sympathizing with this complete idiot of a parent....

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I suppose I could be proud of the fact that it's never crossed my mind to lock Am in the car, just to get her out of the way. I don't know though, that's like being proud of the fact that I've never cut my legs while shaving with a cheese grater... It's not much of an achievement to avoid an asinine event.

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*IMO, of course. I think it's more pertinent that the father had covered the windows with blankets - to try & hide what he knew was wrong - or that that the boy had puked down his shirt. But what do I know?

**And their shoes. I thought it was just an attempt to fend off chaos, but apparently it's a fire regulation or something. Which makes total sense - imagine trying to get a dozen children under the age of three into shoes to go outside? Quickly?