Since when did we start selling live babies?

[KatherineB]

A mother has just been jailed today in Melbourne after leaving her child in the car. The heat was so extreme that the child died: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/wo...212-2e9xc.html

[Mytical]

Ok .. I have some serious memory issues sometimes. Caused by toxins that my liver will not clean out building up in my system. I've even forgotten where I lived. Never, ever..in a million years..could I forget a baby. I, just...wait what?!

[Zellie Crescent]

I can't tell you how many people leave their kids in front of the lobster tank while they shop, I have to tell people when I leave that they can't leave their kids there because I'm the last employee in this area of the store to leave so the kid(s) would be completely unsupervised. They're pissed and tell me they'll just be back in 5 minutes, I really don't care and walk away since it's not my kid although I always manage to sneak a peek at the tank before I go. If the kids there I tell the night manager.

[TechieGirl87]

I have no sympathy for people who knowing leave their kid behind. We have calls over the PA system sometimes for lost kids and/or parents. Two things come to mind; the parent was not watching the child or the child told the parent where they would be and when the parent went to collect them, the child in question wasn't there. If I went into a store with my mom, I told her if I was going to a specific section and up until I got my first cell phone, I didn't wander ANYWHERE other then exactly where I told her I would go. I understand people who get separated on occasion but there is no excuse for neglect. Period.

[Cat Herder]

http://www.somethingawful.com/flash/shmorky/babby.swf

They need to do away with those "instain" mothers who forget their "babbys"

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Now... when I was little I was an unrelenting wanderer. No matter what my mom did she just could not keep me permanently at her side, and this was through no failing of hers. It was entirely on my little adventuring spirit that would not be denied.

However, even as young as I was, I was pretty systematic in how I would wander. I'd go up and down the aisles (if at a grocery store) and pick out one or two things I wanted, then walk to the end of all the aisles and walk down the line, looking down each aisle for my mom.

Basically some children just will not relent. They must wander! They develop the necessary skills at an early age to jailbreak and will jailbreak even if the parent looks away for a measly 2 seconds. So don't condemn all parents if they happen to lose their child on occasion.

FORGETTING the child is an entirely different matter. Though I will have pity for people whose lives are truly so screwed up and they have so much on their mind (stressssss) that the child's location/existence gets lost, I will have not one ounce of sympathy for a parent who forgot their child and it's pretty obvious they don't give a damn either way. These are also the "parents" who will scream that you're a pedophile/kidnapper if you try to stop their child from getting hurt. It's more like the child's whole existence is to let them (the parents) be the center of attention. It's sickening.

[TechieGirl87]

I remember once instance where this boy, probably about six or so, couldn't find his dad. So we paged for the dad over the PA. While we waited, myself and another associate took the kid over to our game section and we all started playing games to keep his spirits up. He was having fun so we must have been doing something right. We looked back to see if the person had shown up yet and he hadn't. By this time, it had been well over thirty minutes. Then the kid said he saw his dad... walking in the OPPOSITE direction! So we followed him up and when we found him, we both said that his son was wondering through electronics. We had paged him... three times. And you know what? The dad just shrugged his shoulders. Seriously?

[FenigDurak]

[snip]
Right when the front end zone manager came up and was getting on his walkie, the Dad came rushing up to claim it, panicked. Apparently, he left the baby with his wife so he could use the restroom, and then she just walked away without it. Hopefully they'll both be more careful, the zone manager wasn't shy about telling this guy he was seconds away from calling the cops.

I commented to the people I was waiting on "You know, I don't have kids so I don't know everything about them . . . but how do you forget you have one?"

Lady shoots back "You DON'T." Lord, she was livid - she'd been waiting on meds to finish filling while all this was happening. I'm actually surprised she didn't chase the guy down and give him a talking to.

This one is on the Mom. Dad left Jr with Mom so he could see to a necessary function. Mom forgot the kid in favor of shopping.

[TechieGirl87]

See, there is no excuse for forgetting your child. None. And I don't sympathize with those people. The same for people who let their child run wild through a store. I actually told a mother to her face that I won't be having her kids running wild through an area they could hurt themselves or other people and if she doesn't like it then she can go be a liability somewhere else. She didn't like that very much. Guess what? Don't care. If you bring your brat into a grocery store or a retail store, you should have enough common sense to teach them how to behave.

[KatherineB]

Can someone explain to me why companies/shops wait so long, paging people, hanging around, etc, before they actually do something like call the police about children like this? Why not just call the authorities straight away and let the parents (when they're found) make the explanation to THEM rather than to the store?

[Lovecats]

When I worked at Kohl's many years ago, our toy section was in the back near customer service and people would frequently leave their little darlings (not!) back there to play while they shopped. Some of them actually said that they thought the people working at customer service could watch them. You know, it's not like they have any actual work to do. And since the customer service people did have actual work to do the little darlings would be tearing up the toy section.

[EricKei]

KB -- I would imagine, because it's generally faster and simpler...IF the parents reply promptly.

[Jetfire]

Can someone explain to me why companies/shops wait so long, paging people, hanging around, etc, before they actually do something like call the police about children like this? Why not just call the authorities straight away and let the parents (when they're found) make the explanation to THEM rather than to the store?

The benefit of the doubt. Some kids (as mentioned above) are natural escape artists, so by paging, a proper parent would probably already be on the alert for that and come quicker than the cops would, causing less hassle overall.

But if the parents haven't shown up after a few pages (depending on the size of the place), then it should be Cops time.

[Sundassa]

We had that happen on Friday! The lady who stocks our OTC stuff in the evenings found it in a carrier, inside a shopping cart, in the cold & flu med isle. She and my boss were beside themselves and started freaking out just a little. Well, he was. She calmly pushed it to the waiting area in front of pharmacy, sat down on the bench and said "I found a baby! If no one claims it, I get to keep it, it's mine!" She must have sat there for ten minutes while boss made pages and called management. Right when the front end zone manager came up and was getting on his walkie, the Dad came rushing up to claim it, panicked. Apparently, he left the baby with his wife so he could use the restroom, and then she just walked away without it. Hopefully they'll both be more careful, the zone manager wasn't shy about telling this guy he was seconds away from calling the cops.

I commented to the people I was waiting on "You know, I don't have kids so I don't know everything about them . . . but how do you forget you have one?"

Lady shoots back "You DON'T." Lord, she was livid - she'd been waiting on meds to finish filling while all this was happening. I'm actually surprised she didn't chase the guy down and give him a talking to.

But seriously, how do you FORGET YOUR BABY?

I'd have to say, it almost sounds like he didn't realize his wife lost her marbles. I wouldn't necessarily blame him unless he knew there were warning signs prior, but definitely would blame the wife.