A mum has revealed how her decision to leave her son in the car for a few minutes three years ago has haunted her ever since.
Mum-of-two Kim Brooks, from Chicago in the US, told her account in an essay published recently online.
She said the lead-up to the incident began when she was at her parents' house getting ready to catch a flight home.
While running late getting ready for the flight that day, the mum had realised her son's headphones had broken.
Knowing he would want them to listen to movies on the two-and-a-half hour plane journey, she decided to drive out to a shop to gets some new ones.
Her son, aged four at the time, said he wanted to go. But when they got to the shop, the boy wanted to stay in the minivan and continue playing on an iPad.
The mum said she tried to convince her son to come with her, but eventually give in and left him where he was.
She said, “I took a deep breath. I looked at the clock. For the next four or five seconds, I did what it sometimes seems I've been doing every minute of every day since having children, a constant, never-ending risk-benefit analysis.
“I noted that it was a mild, overcast, 50-degree day. I noted how close the parking spot was to the front door, and that there were a few other cars nearby.
“I visualized how quickly, unencumbered by a tantrumming four-year-old, I would be, running into the store, grabbing a pair of child headphones. And then I did something I'd never done before.
“I left him. I told him I'd be right back. I cracked the windows and child-locked the doors and double-clicked my keys so that the car alarm was set. And then I left him in the car for about five minutes.”
Kim said in the essay on Salon.com that when she returned to the car, her son was still playing his game and smiling.
The mum, her son and her daughter, who was aged one at the time, then flew home to Chicago. But when they arrived, Kim was dealt a shocking blow.
It turned out a bystander had noticed Kim leaving her son in the car, recorded the incident using a phone's camera, and then contacted the police.
Some months later, Kim was charged with ‘contributing to the delinquency of a minor’.
“I felt guilty and ashamed. I felt I'd put my child at risk for my own momentary convenience. I knew I wasn't a terrible mother, but I'd done something terrible, dangerous, and now I'd suffer the consequences, go to court, pay legal fees, live with a criminal record,” said Kim.
The mum’s lawyer advised her to plead guilty.
When the case went to court, the prosecutor agreed to issue a continuance in the case and not pursue the charge if Kim completed 100 hours of community service over the course of nine and attended parenting education.
Kim said the thing that bothered her the most during the whole incident was the impact the case had on her son.
“I got out of the car one day to feed the parking meter next to the driver side window and he said 'Don’t, Mommy. Don’t. The police will come’," said Kim.
"That evening I sat him down and tried to explain it. I told him that he was right, that mommy had left him in the car for a few minutes one time and that was a mistake. I wasn’t supposed to do that. But it was all going to be fine now. Mommy wasn’t going to jail. And no one was going to kidnap him!” she added.
