A father left his two children unattended for an hour and 45 minutes in Houston, while he shopped. Apparently he left food, water and a movie on to keep the kids entertained. The entertainment obviously didn’t amount to much because when the father returned he found that his 6 year old daughter had become frustrated with her one year old brother, and wrapped a seatbelt around his neck and strangled him. The father tried to attempt CPR but the little boy was taken to hospital where he later died.

I am so horrified by this story. We are constantly hearing stories of children being left unattended in cars and really there is no excuse. I am certainly not a sanctimonious mum and believe me not at all perfect, but just don’t do it! I get how hard it is shopping with kids, believe me I do. I have three young children, 7, 4 and 3 and although they are at much easier ages now, at one point I had a 3, 1 and newborn and that was in no way easy. I think the good thing these days is that this kind of thing is really frowned upon in society so the majority of people are very mindful of this and if they see a child unattended in a car they will immediately report this to authorities, and many have saved lives in doing so.

Have you ever seen a child left unattended, and did you report it?