#checkforbaby

[Kara]

This is an actual public awareness campaign.

https://twitter.com/NHTSAgov/status/633672522056212480

I like how they somehow blame the sun (which makes all of our biosphere possible, BTW) for breeders killing their gene repositories on the website. Luminous spheres of plasma held together by their own gravity don't kill people, people kill people.

http://www.safercar.gov/parents/InandAroundtheCar/heatstroke.htm



Admiral Yamamoto wishes his forces could have flown under a sun that menacing.

tl;dr - benji was right.

[octopushover]

i'm more concerned that they have two kids and a car with absolutely no storage space

[Joe Molotov]

I hated that guy in Super Mario Bros 3. Not as much as the Mask in SMB2, but still.

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BTW, while googling Angry Sun, I found this and now my day is complete. semi-

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[Kara]

When did Daisy become a PAWG.

[Positive Touch]

fyi I clicked on like before I clicked on the spoiler

[T-Short]

"Unfortunately, even great parents can forget a child in the back seat."

what? lol

[brawndolicious]

"Unfortunately, even great parents can forget a child in the back seat."

what? lol

Well relatively.

[Steve Youngblood]

"Unfortunately, even great parents can forget a child in the back seat."

what? lol

As insane as it sounds, there have actually been some heartbreaking stories to read about parents seemingly just making a terrible, tragic mistake in regards to forgetting that their babies were with them. I mean, we've all read about instances where obviously terrible and/or stupid people willfully leave their child in the car to run an errand, but reading this story years ago caused me to believe that not every death like that is the result of callousness or stupidity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

[Kara]

"Miles Harrison, 49, was an amiable person, a diligent businessman and a doting, conscientious father until the day last summer -- beset by problems at work, making call after call on his cellphone -- he forgot to drop his son, Chase, at day care."

hope they were important phone calls

[brawndolicious]

It's easy to forget that you have a sleeping child in your car/home (I've never done it) but nobody that does it then thinks what a great parent they still are. Regret is a natural part of reproduction.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I can see it happening if you are sleeping max 1.5 hour at a time for 6 months.

[Brehvolution]

Having a baby at age 49

[octopushover]

"Unfortunately, even great parents can forget a child in the back seat."

what? lol

As insane as it sounds, there have actually been some heartbreaking stories to read about parents seemingly just making a terrible, tragic mistake in regards to forgetting that their babies were with them. I mean, we've all read about instances where obviously terrible and/or stupid people willfully leave their child in the car to run an errand, but reading this story years ago caused me to believe that not every death like that is the result of callousness or stupidity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

I would argue that while this is absolutely true, it doesn't mean that "great parents" can accidentally forget a child in the backseat of a car. It means that "average parents" can accidentally forget a child in the backseat of a car. We need to stop teaching people that they're all "great parents," because the majority aren't.

[studyguy]

My dad used to drop my off at my grandma's when I was a little before going to work.
Said once he forgot me in his back seat at work, luckily he went to work at like 3AM so by the time he went to his car for lunch, it was only like 8AM and I was still bundled up in the back seat asleep.

[Steve Youngblood]

"Unfortunately, even great parents can forget a child in the back seat."

what? lol

As insane as it sounds, there have actually been some heartbreaking stories to read about parents seemingly just making a terrible, tragic mistake in regards to forgetting that their babies were with them. I mean, we've all read about instances where obviously terrible and/or stupid people willfully leave their child in the car to run an errand, but reading this story years ago caused me to believe that not every death like that is the result of callousness or stupidity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

I would argue that while this is absolutely true, it doesn't mean that "great parents" can accidentally forget a child in the backseat of a car. It means that "average parents" can accidentally forget a child in the backseat of a car. We need to stop teaching people that they're all "great parents," because the majority aren't.

Sure. That's fair. I guess that I honestly was caught off guard prior to reading what I linked earlier that "baby dies after being left in car" isn't just something that happens to scumbags. Almost every time I hear of it, it's a story about some jackass running into the bank or to go shopping or something and they seem oblivious to the fact that something like this could happen to an infant left unattended. I think I read that Washington Post article a little before my own kid was born, and while I'm not saying it made me sympathetic to people who leave their kids in cars during the day, it did instill a new fear into me that "holy shit I wonder if that could be me some day."

[octopushover]

I'm willing to bet the people it does happen to never wonder if it will happen to them.

[Kara]

Having a baby at age 49

In that WaPo article they say that there's no common factor in these cases but injurious vanity was sure present in all the ones I read. (At a certain point in the article I had to close the tab because I was seething so I can't say if all the stories had it.)

I really liked how this was reduced down to less evolved parts of the brain bullying the more evolved. Move over cyberbullying.

[Joe Molotov]

I really liked how this was reduced down to less evolved parts of the brain bullying the more evolved. Move over cyberbullying.

asshole_brain.meme

Reddit on the cutting edge of advanced child care theory.

[Phoenix Dark]

speaking of babies, when are you gonna make your mom a grandma Kara?

[Kara]

She could (and I use that word in the most abstract and hypothetical senses) have been one, but instead she chose her pride and ideology. I take a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that she will only "live on" in a professional sense (and then only until her work is obsolesced by the march of progress) after we're both dead and gone because despite her life of dedication, she generally loathes her peers, pupils, et cetera, and these will be the only ones to carry her on her memory in the end.

I only hope that I go first and with many years left in her life so that this can all haunt her through her golden years with no recourse left to her.

Besides, what the hell would I even impart on kids of my own? How best to be a myrmidon?

[Kara]

She could (and I use that word in the most abstract and hypothetical senses) have been one, but instead she chose her pride and ideology. I take a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that she will only "live on" in a professional sense (and then only until her work is obsolesced by the march of progress) after we're both dead and gone because despite her life of dedication, she generally loathes her peers, pupils, et cetera, and these will be the only ones to carry her on her memory in the end.

I only hope that I go first and with many years left in her life so that this can all haunt her through her golden years with no recourse left to her.

Besides, what the hell would I even impart on kids of my own? How best to be a myrmidon?

I didn't play Fire Emblem, sorry.

[Yulwei]

ITT we use the term breeder completely unironically

[Joe Molotov]

Merman, dad! Merman!

[CatsCatsCats]

#checkforbaby would be a lot cooler if it was a prolife program set to discourage abortion by literally giving people checks for having babies.

[Kara]

#checkforbaby would be a lot cooler if it was a prolife program set to discourage abortion by literally giving people checks for having babies.

From what I've read this is actually somewhat effective but utilitarian reasoning isn't going to be very effective with people of that position (which there's nothing wrong with) so I don't bother bringing it up.

[Kara]

No benji but I think the state costs more than a dollar, JW.

[Kara]

I like how they somehow blame the sun (which makes all of our biosphere possible, BTW)

Not all of the biosphere. There's some cute critters that use the warmth deep in the earth to sustain themselves.

Yeah but would there be a warming Earth without a sun?

(I honestly don't know what the prevailing theory is atm.)

[benjipwns]

When did I become a verb?

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Not complaining.

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Attention. 

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[Kara]

It is a matter of framing, JW. I was specifically talking about comprehensive public support programs but I framed it as just paying people to not abort. I understand that perhaps there are degrees of separation between those two systems but I am unsentimental about these things given my years in the trenches.

[CatsCatsCats]

If we're dealing with someone who needs a bribe to refrain from killing others then the purely utilitarian thing would be to keep them from killing anyone else as cheaply as possible.

There are solutions for this under a dollar.

you say bribe, I like to think of it more as payment for services rendered. Room and board for starters

[Kara]

I had some dealings with a charity that supports expecting and new mothers and I was honestly surprised how much it was dependent on government grants to function, especially ones for individual mothers.

#notallcharities and whatnot, but in a world that isn't operating as desired the line between a charity and a government agency is blurry.

[Trent Dole]

On the actual topic, being a parent is tiring.  Being a working parent is more tiring. 

I never did this purposefully nor on accident, but I can see how this could happen if you're just not getting enough sleep and the kid's not making any noise so you're just sleepwalking through life and don't notice your error until it's too late.  People get into car accidents for similar reasons, they just go on autopilot and all of a sudden they have a rude awakening via airbag to the face.


There is a case in Georgia right now where a man is accused of doing this on purpose and pretending it was an accident.  He apparently did quite an extensive Google search on the topic before the "accident."

dude shoulda used duckduckgo.

[Phoenix Dark]

Sorry, I don't qualify for welfare.

[octopushover]

there's another one now: #istandwithcherish


forgetting the fact that the woman's name is fucking cherish but remember when that woman let her 6 year olds go to the park alone and child services knocked down her door

but nah leaving your 2-month-old kid in a shopping cart that's cool

[Shadow Mod]

The shit my parents and grandma would have gotten in trouble for in today's cps world. 

[Oblivion]

Why is the baby seat facing the other way?

[chronovore]

Why is the baby seat facing the other way?

It presumes that the driver may be more likely to rear-end a car in front of them, in which case deceleration will push the infant into the back of its car-seat, instead of being flung forward and relying on straps. Also better for the infant's neck in that scenario.

[Shadow Mod]

Why is the baby seat facing the other way?

It presumes that the driver may be more likely to rear-end a car in front of them, in which case deceleration will push the infant into the back of its car-seat, instead of being flung forward and relying on straps. Also better for the infant's neck in that scenario.

Or the front seats move back and squish baby.

[Oblivion]

Why is the baby seat facing the other way?

It presumes that the driver may be more likely to rear-end a car in front of them, in which case deceleration will push the infant into the back of its car-seat, instead of being flung forward and relying on straps. Also better for the infant's neck in that scenario.

Huh, that's a legit thing? Thought doing that sort of stuff was illegal.

[chronovore]

Why is the baby seat facing the other way?

It presumes that the driver may be more likely to rear-end a car in front of them, in which case deceleration will push the infant into the back of its car-seat, instead of being flung forward and relying on straps. Also better for the infant's neck in that scenario.

Or the front seats move back and squish baby.

Wow, I'd never even thought of that. I guess I picture the cabin in modern cars as being some kind of impervious S.H.I.E.L.D. Hulk Container, but there's plenty of chances for that scenario to be true. 

[Steve Youngblood]

Why is the baby seat facing the other way?

It presumes that the driver may be more likely to rear-end a car in front of them, in which case deceleration will push the infant into the back of its car-seat, instead of being flung forward and relying on straps. Also better for the infant's neck in that scenario.

Huh, that's a legit thing? Thought doing that sort of stuff was illegal.

Quite the opposite. Children are now advised to be in rear-facing car seats until both of the following are true: they are 3 years old, and they are at least 20 pounds. May not be illegal to not follow that, but it's what you are repeatedly advised when buying car seats.

[brawndolicious]

What Steve said. Car seat laws have changed quite a bit in the last few years. They're even required to sit on a booster seat until they're over 4' 9" or turn 8.

The incidence of children dying in cars went way up after it was legally required to put them into the back seat. It's worth thinking about a legal remedy to overcome human error. It wouldn't be hard to have a car seat that plugs into the car and tells the car if there's still a child sitting in it when the driver leaves and sets off the car alarm.