Why do parents leave kids in cars to go shopping?

Very often there is news of children dying in cars due to heat and suffocation. Sometimes they gained entrance into the vehicles by themselves and couldn’t get out. Other times they were forgotten inside the vehicles. The most recent incident which hit world news on June 18 was of a father, Justin Ross Harris, 33. […]

Very often there is news of children dying in cars due to heat and suffocation. Sometimes they gained entrance into the vehicles by themselves and couldn’t get out. Other times they were forgotten inside the vehicles.
The most recent incident which hit world news on June 18 was of a father, Justin Ross Harris, 33. He was supposed to drop his toddler, identified in reports as Cooper, at day care, but instead went straight to work, apparently forgetting the boy was strapped in his car seat in the back of the vehicle for seven hours leading to the toddler’s death.
This is an extreme case but not entirely foreign from some of the practices of some Nigerian parents. It is common sight around town to see children in the car alone with no adult in their midst. Usually they are in the care of the oldest of them who may usually be a teenager or even younger.
A ‘Weekly Trust’ reader, A.M. Ajayi sent a message in the June 21 edition which further buttresses that it is common practice in Nigeria. The message read: “I have at many occasions seen parents behave like irresponsible people, sometimes outright stupid. The reason for my harsh language is because children are involved. Some parents would leave small children in the car, unattended and rush into a store or who knows where else. There are many cases you hear about bad things happening to children left alone in vehicles, so parents should please endeavour to be mindful of that.”
Just as Ajayi rightly said, as if to clear any doubts, our reporter saw a scenario as he described at the Utako market last Sunday. Three children amused themselves in a silver-coloured Hyundai SUV which was on with air conditioning working and windows wound up.  Watching to know how long whoever left them would take before returning back to them, our reporter observed for 23 minutes after which a lady came back, dropped her bags in the booth and was about to go off again when our reporter walked up to her.
Inquiring if it crossed her mind that leaving the children by themselves in the car was not such a good idea especially as she was gone for that long, with a shrug of her shoulders she said: “I didn’t realise I was gone for that long. In any case, I didn’t go far and I kept looking in their direction very often and could see that they were okay. Being Sunday too, the market isn’t crowded and the traders are up in front here.”
The question is, is this a risk worth taking?A vehement ‘no’ was Mrs. Abigail Ibekwe’s response: “It is absolutely not a risk worth taking. If you decide you’ll take your children to a marketplace, be ready to hold them for the entire period you plan on being there. With all the crises going on in this town and the treats even of such places, why would anybody be so careless to do such a thing?”
Although there may have been no reports of the dangers children have suffered because they were left in a car because their parents thought they could make a dash into the supermarket and be back in no time before any harm came the children’s way. This does not mean that they do not happen.
It calls for parents to be very careful, the things they take for granted when it comes to children. Shedding more light on the issue, Mr Ehime Aihie, said: “Children are very curious people and you cannot begin to imagine the things that go on in those their tiny heads.
“They only need you to look in the other direction before their exploration begins. It is too risky to leave them unattended to in a car, no matter how short the time frame. What if they start fondling with buttons and gadgets in the car because they are curious to know how these things work? You never know how much destruction these could lead to. What if they do something that jams the lock and you can’t access them? There are so many hazards leaving children alone in a car could pose.”
Sa’adatu Yerima, a mother of four, strongly advises parents not to be too relaxed when it comes to looking after their children: “We take it for granted that Nigeria is generally a safe country. There are many sick people out there who are just watching out for a weak link to pounce on an unsuspecting victim. Don’t make a meal for them of your child by leaving him or her in a car unattended to.”