‘I left my child in a sweltering car’

Barbecue

“I went to the supermarket with my mother for some groceries,” she tells her story on her blog. ‘We went to a barbecue with the whole family and my husband, who was busy with the meat, asked if I wanted to get some corn. And if I wanted to take our one-year-old baby with me so he wouldn’t have to watch her.’

No sooner said than done. But once at the supermarket, Rita is so busy talking to her mother that they both forget about the little girl. ‘We were in less than two minutes, because the corn was gone. Back in the car, on our way to the next supermarket, we realized we’d left the baby in the car.’

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What if

Not a single window was open and it was over thirty degrees that day. “A car can get very hot in no time and a child’s body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult’s,” says Rita. ‘It has been a few years since this happened, but I still often think: what if we had stayed longer in the supermarket and our baby – due to my negligence – would be one of the deaths that falls every year because parents leave a kid in a hot car?’

‘Never say never’

It took Rita years to write her story. ‘I felt terrible. I’ve endangered my child’s safety. Yet I now share my story, as a warning that it can happen to anyone. Even if you think you would never do something like that – like me. And if I’ve learned one lesson, it’s this: “Never say I would never do it.” You don’t have to be negligent, drunk or stoned. Even as a good, responsible mother, it can happen to you.’