Stories of infants left in hot cars dominate the news in the summer months, but winter is already making a play for the same, sad headlines.
Case in point: A California dad was just arrested after saying he “forgot” about his four-month-old daughter strapped into her car seat.
A passerby actually heard the infant’s screams coming from inside the car, which was parked in a residential driveway, Saturday night.
After being unable to successfully reach anyone in the house outside which the car was parked, the man who discovered the girl called 911.
Alejandro Vargas, 31, was inside the property with his three other children, ages 2, 3, and 4, when the police arrived at his residence.
The baby was still in good health and unharmed.
According to reports, the children’s parents are separated, and were in the care of their dad. They were placed in protective custody.
Details are scarce, but it’s possible that the baby fell asleep in the car and he didn’t want to wake her, then legitimately did forget she was there?
With three other kids, we can almost see that.
Not that there’s any excuse that makes this okay, but we can see it happening on some level. No one wants to wake a sleeping infant.
With one kid, you can easily stay in the car with him or her and read, or drive around if they prefer to sleep with the vehicle in motion.
Most parents have been there, to be sure.
That being said, you can’t leave them unattended, even in perfect temperatures, so really, there is other option but to bring baby inside.
There are also people who believe that sleeping in car seats for extended periods of time is bad for infants, but that’s beside the point.
More critically, stories of parents’ “forgetting” children in cars – or deliberately thinking it’s okay to leave them – are becoming far too normal.
This isn’t the first, nor will it be the last.