Dear dad in parking lot...

[MMMommy]

Do you really think it is a good idea to let your toddler (no more than three years old) walk eight steps behind you in a busy parking lot? Did you notice that he happened to be walking in the middle of where the cars drive, while you put your shopping cart back in the shopping cart return area? So you care enough to put the cart back where it belongs, but you don't care that your young son is roaming pretty far behind you with no regard for the cars driving towards him? And you continued to walk eight steps ahead of him without holding his hand at any time during your stroll through the parking lot. He was certainly small enough that drivers probably couldn't see him walking if they weren't looking or driving very carefully. I just hope your young son doesn't have to pay the price for your lack of common sense in the future.

[DrSally]

Arghhhh!

[hillview]

OH that is where DH was today!

Sorry that sucks -- I feel like you just described my DH. Who I adore. :bag
/hillary

[MMMommy]

Hillary, don't worry! I'm sure it wasn't your DH! :wink2::wink2:

[ett]

I just saw something like this the other day at the library parking lot. A dad and his older son were walking in front, while the younger son (a couple years old) was trailing steps behind him. I was thinking to myself that was really unsafe!

[Gracemom]

Sounds like my DH too. :duh: I remind him about this all the time. Some people truly were not born with common sense. Thankfully, nothing's happened to my kids yet!

[wellyes]

Dads are notorious for letting kids do much riskier stuff than moms--- sometimes that's good, like trusting kids on monkey bars. Skinned knees can be good for the soul. But parking lots? *Shudder*

You know how they say everyone should have a manual labor job and a job waiting tables to learn about life and give perspective to people in those professions? I got hit by a car once and suffered very serious injuries. I occasionally think everyone should go through that to give them proper respect for the 4000 lb SUVs out there.

[arivecchi]

:47:

So glad that my DH is actually super anal about this.

[AnnieW625]

I will sympathize with the dad in this situation. :bag x1000 (think of me any way you want to).

When DD1 was about 17 months old I had to go to Costco at 5 pm on a weeknight to pick up a pizza for a family who had just had a baby. I stupidly took DD1 out of the shopping cart first and put the pizza back in the car and then assumed she walk right behind me to and from to put the cart back well she decided to walk into the middle of the parking lot similar to the child in your post. I felt incredibly stupid and it never happened again (although DD1 did still have a tendancy to bolt). So please please please don't over analyze situations you may not know the whole story to. We all make mistakes.

[longtallsally05]

Sounds like a dad who occasionally picks up his kids from our preschool. Dad is a POLICE OFFICER, and I saw him let his two year-old run down a wheelchair ramp out in the street, and dad simply called out the child's name. Dad didn't move his feet at all until the child ran past the end of the building and out into the crosswalk into the path of oncoming traffic from the Pre-K carpool pick up lane. Dad never broke a sweat. The teachers and I nearly had heart attacks. Teachers never let a child go; they physically hand them to the parents. Dad had let go of his son so he could argue with his daughter about who would carry her book bag. He saw the boy take off, he just didn't do anything about it. I would have run after the kid myself, except I had my two kids with me. Not sure why the teacher didn't run after the kid...thank God he wasn't hurt.

[MMMommy]

I will sympathize with the dad in this situation. :bag x1000 (think of me any way you want to).

When DD1 was about 17 months old I had to go to Costco at 5 pm on a weeknight to pick up a pizza for a family who had just had a baby. I stupidly took DD1 out of the shopping cart first and put the pizza back in the car and then assumed she walk right behind me to and from to put the cart back well she decided to walk into the middle of the parking lot similar to the child in your post. I felt incredibly stupid and it never happened again (although DD1 did still have a tendancy to bolt). So please please please don't over analyze situations you may not know the whole story to. We all make mistakes.

I totally understand making mistakes or when things happen unintentionally. I sure make my fair share of mistakes! I've been in the situation where DDs have run off in a parking lot for a split second without my knowledge. And in your Costco situation, I totally understand how that can happen. And in your situation, I'm sure you bolted to grab your DD when you realized what had happened. But this dad KNEW his son was walking in the middle of the parking lot. While putting the cart away, the kid was in the middle of the parking lot lane (driving lane, not empty parking space). The dad was in fact watching his son while putting the cart away and reminded his son to "try to to stand there." So he was fully aware where his son was. It wasn't a moment of "oops, I didn't know he was standing there." He saw him in the middle of the driving lane and told him to "try not to stand there." At that point, I was thinking, don't say that to him. Make him NOT stand there by grabbing him at least or pulling him away from the driving lane.

And after that, this dad continued to just walk lazily towards the other end of the mini mall through the parking lot with the kid trailing behind him, not within grabbing reach or hands reach at all. It's the fact that the dad purposefully engaged in this behavior that bothered me. If it had been an "oops" mistake I would not have even created this thread.