I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to the Rebono Shel Olam. Basically, my babysitter saved my sons life today. I can’t begin to thank her for her conscientiousness. After a few nights of no sleep due to the typical sick kids, yom tov preparations and waking up early for selichos, my husband left the baby in the car instead of dropping him off at the babysitter.
The baby is usually dropped off at about 9:30. At 10:45, the babysitter called my husband to ask if he was coming today. My husband, needless to say, had the shock of his life as soon as he saw her phone number on the caller ID and suddenly realized the baby was still in the car.
Baruch hashem, he always leaves the windows of the car open. I don’t want to begin to think what would have happened otherwise.
Please, please all babysitters and morahs: call the parent of any kid that does [not] show up. Sound like a nudge one thousand times for that one time that you save a child’s life.
(TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to [email protected]).
“Baruch hashem, he always leaves the windows of the car open. I don’t want to begin to think what would have happened otherwise.”
Does this sentence make any sense????? so the window was open & the child could’ve easily been kidnapped!!!!! what’s the “baruch hashem”???? it’s called a “careless parent”!!
Baruch HaShem!
The lesson here is Simas Lev.
We live in a world filled with so many distractions. If we would only spend a little time learning mussar our actions wouldn`t be so robotic.
Author wrote: “Please, please all babysitters and morahs: call the parent of any kid that does show up.”
— babysitters & morah’s shouldn’t be babysitting the parents to remind them to not forget their kids!! They are BABY-sitters, not PARENT-sitters!!!!
How about a little responsibility on the part of your husband instead of excuses like he woke up early, sick kids etc… Everyone’s going through the same things. There is NEVER an excuse to leave a child in the car!
What she means is that the car did not become a percolator and the kid didn’t die from the heat, as to the child could have been kidnapped, B’H it wasn’t.
Just wait till it happens to you- then you will be using every excuse in the book. No one is excusing the husband- it happened. It can happen to the most responsible people, even you.
everyone be nice!!, she didn’t post this so u can all tell her what a bad parent she is….she did it to warn you!!!!!!!!!!
stop looking at everything in the negative way!
PLEASE!
erev rosh hashana!
cant you try working on urself a little???
is it soo hard?
and btw…you’ll all be saying what a bad parent she is until YOU’RE stuck in her situation….so u might wanna keep ur mouths shut!!
If its a mild weathered day its not a big deal at all to leave a kid in the car, especially if windows are cracked. Its only a serious issue in the heat of the summer..
worried about kidnapping? Lock the car! safer than the park/store/home…
This is the holiday season. New fruits, happiness, family, friends, so much to do so much to get ready. Some of us have more and some have less. We need to get THE esrog of choice, the best of the best. We need to get our clothing ready to look sharp, we are about to stand infront of the king of kings, and beg for our lives. 1 question I have to ask myself… is this what hashem wants? Does he want us to take care of our familys to sit with them and enjoy them? Does he want us to learn together? I think if we spent more time with our family they will become number 1 and god willing this kind of stuff will never happen again. toeveryone a wonderfull year.
It’s very insensitive to criticize this parent. No one is immune from being tired and making mistakes.
Lets stop being negative and look at the positive right before Rosh haShana – Boruch Hashem everyone is OK. Were mistakes made? Of course – but the end result is that all is well. Boruch Hashem ! Let all of our mistakes in the coming year only have positive results
There are no Excuses for something as horrific as this to happen. I have BH four children, ran a business, kept a home and prepared for holidays and I NEVER have done something like this.
anon ditto and let’s commend the couple for putting the incident in the public so others can take chizuk; Gut gebenched yahr Klal Yisrael!!
all parent should put a sticky note on the steering wheel to remind them that their are in the back seat. a very HAPPY & HEALTHLY NEW YEAR
To #13 NEVER say NEVER! all this parents also said before it never happened to them, untill for some reason or the other it did happen! There is always things in life that you say it will never happen to you untill it does happen, after all we are humans and not angles and humans make mistakes some make bigger and some smaller but we all make mistakes that we never beleive it could happen to us
To #13 don’t be such a hot shot noon is immune!
To Self-righteous (#13)
You have NEVER done something like this.
But have you EVER made a mistake?
So get off your high horse and be grateful that your mistakes were not Chas Vesholom tragic
To lakewoodtaxpayer and kerp on davening that it never happens to you…..I have a funny feeling that you have made mistakes in your life as well……so take a chill
Kudos to the babysitter. Everyone should have one like her.
A Gut Gebencht Yur!
i would smash his window open and save the child without asking any questions !
Let’s put bells and whistles and flags and notes and our purses and hats and anything that will help us remember that we have a child in the car. Funny, we’ll remember our hats and purses even if we’re tired, had a bad night, had sick kids, but we forget our kids. What a world we live in that we need reminders that we have kids in our care.
Unfortunately we now live in a dangerous world, in which we have to worry about kidnappers etc. Years ago, I would leave my sleeping child in my car in may own driveway without fear of kidnappers (not in the hot summer, but in the winter, all bundled up), because if I knew I had to leave my house soon again, I didn’t want to wake a sleeping child who would end up losing his nap and being cranky. I didn’t see anything wrong with it then,, and i still don’t. It’s only that the times we live in have changed.
i never forgot my children in my car.
As a former chaveirim member i have to say these stories happen way to often but they are never intentional and we should never judge. Yes its a nice thing for the babysitter to call the parent. But how about the wife call the husband stop throwing the achryus on the baby sitter every child has 2parents who is RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR WELL BEING NOT THE BABY SITTER
To all who are saying it was a careless mistake due to the busy life schedule ie. Early morning slichos late nights preparing for tom tov. Let me ask you a question? What comes first? living a lifestyle that doesn’t allow any realistic travel time and so many obligations that you set yourself up for mistakes? Or being a responsible parent by putting your kids and family obligations first then working aorund that to fit your lifestyle? I’m personally (being someone who was in a bank parking lot once in middle of this past hot summer and seeing a woman lock her mentally disabled child and a baby in the car by leaving the keys in the car, then panic and ask me to borrow my phone to call chavierem in which I actually coaxed her down syndrome daughter to open the lock which was a miracle) still tired of hearing the oy I have so much going on in my life so don’t fault me for my mistakes! Humans make mistakes but not doing all you can to preempt mistakes I believe leaves you at fault once those mistakes happen. That needs to change
This is not a mistake!!! Forgetting a hat, to get the cleaning, or misspelling a word is a mistake. Forgetting your child in the car shows that they are not the most important thing in your life, I will criticize anyone who does this!!! And, yes, I have made mistakes in my life, but, none so stupid.
Sir why haven’t you posted my comment? It can’t be because of content could it? That would mean you have a biased agenda? I don’t think that’s fair
I mamush cannot believe that we are back to this! How scary! Yes, BH the babysitter did what I hope became the standard if a child is absend or late. But please, dont blame lack of sleep or slichos. If your really tired TAKE THE DAY OFF FROM WORK ( I cant imagine that you or your husband can be working to your optimum level being so tired….) May hashem protect all yidden!!!
The window was open- no need to smash it.
to #13 stop being a big shot it could happen to anyone and believe or not it happens more often than you think be happy she came forward to awake us all again
how about the mother of the baby nudge her husband every day why is ti the babysitters responsibility???
i guess people think there is only 1 levy aron in this world.
(sad but there are millions of monsters like him looking to strike at any given moment. i guess it gonna take another tragedy for people to wake up and realize THE WORLD HAS CHANGED! AND THAT MEANS YOU SHOULD TOO WITH YOUR IRRESPONSIBLE HABITS/EXCUSES!)
On a side note don’t drive when tired its just as bad as driving drunk! Regarding this incident, Hashem was watching over His kinderlach. The parents must of had zechusim. If I were the babysitter I would want my money and would want to know if the kid is coming so that I get paid. I wouldn’t think that maybe the kid was left in the car!
indeed, there is only one in billions like levy aharon.
The odds of a child getting kidnapped in NJ are one in millions!
The odds of getting struck by a car while not in the safety of the car are way higher.
to the guy that claims to b “open minded”: even if its not the heat of summer a car can still heat-up to a dangerous level
enough mussar—the parents have had their scare of a lifetime—baruch hashem–it turned out okay—-let’s just remember what time of the year this is—and move on— a healthy and happy year to come for all—-
Thank you everyone for all your comments. Everyone could use some mussar in any situation and we appreciate it. I knew I was opening myself up to comments but the point I wanted to convey is worth the insults. No my babysitter is not my parent-sitter, I never expected her to be. We dont begin to excuse ourselves, I was just explaining what occured. We have taken the necessary precautions in our car – have you? Or are you also so completely sure of yourself, the way I was? Have you taken off work every time you were tired? Have you?? It’s, oh, so easy to judge other people….
to the mother, yes you did open yourself to judgments and insults, I for one dont understand why parents do it. In your case where he forgot and you took all the rite steps so it should never happen again that you should be proud of! all the people who say it never happened to them or it cant happen to them are either lying to you or them selves.
September 27, 2011 at 9:59 pm
to all those who are so judgemental hashem runs the world with a mida kneged mida you are truly opening yourself to a very harsh day of judgement please re evalute your comments and try to be dan lkaf zchus im sure you think this can never happen to you but you must be very young if you have lived on this world you will know this has happened to many caring parents over the ages in different forms to even some of our greatest leaders
Not paranoid open minded says: …”indeed, there is only one in billions like levy aron.”
– you obviously are only open minded to YOUR idea of reality.
look up the facts before you speak:
Every 40 seconds in the United States, a child is reported missing or abducted. That translates to over 2,000 children per day (under 18 years of age) or 800,000 per year.
-not so smart/open-minded after all…..
We are only human. No one is expected to be perfect. I understand your plea to babysitters, however, your husband must still take responsibility for his actions. You were given a second chance that sadly others didn’t get in this situation. Aside for telling babysitters to take the extra precaution, talk to other parents about precautions they should take, that you will now be taking as well, to help prevent this from happening in the future. Tell parents to ignore others who call them “over protective.” You never hear parents say they wished they were “less” protective. It’s usually the other way around. Because, tragically, there aren’t always happy endings…
how right you are #6!
People are so quick to blame. Wait until it happens to you (hopefully it won’t) but this can happen to the most responsible of parents.
Such type occurences seem like the impossible yet so very probable.
Let’s try and judge our fellow jew favorably always especially during the aseres yemai teshuva
Mr. Conservative are you trying to compare levy Ahron to someone???!?!!!?