REMINDER: Your kid's in the backseat

There have been way too many instances where parents leave their kids in the car and the child dies due to the heat. We all say "how could you forget your child?" but it seems that the majority of these cases are due to a change in schedule where the "other" parent is supposed to drop the child off. Anytime you change the daily routine, you run the risk of something not being done as usual.

A middle school boy invented an item to help prevent these deaths and calls it the E-Z Baby Saver. It's a device you can make from rubber bands and duct tape that, essentially, straps between the back of the driver seat to the door so you can't get out without running in to it. It's supposed to be a reminder to check the back seat.

I am glad people are thinking about ways to prevent these tragedies but I really don't think this will work. And here's why:

1. Parents may use this a few times but if they are responsible for dropping the child off on a daily basis, they aren't going to be the ones that forget the child in the backseat to begin with.

2. If it's the parent that doesn't normally have the daily task of driving the child around, they aren't going to want to have this "strap" in their way on a daily basis and they will remove it. Hence, making it non-functional because it's not being used.

3. The use of the strap still requires that the parent actually check the backseat before leaving their vehicle for the day. If they leave it on full time and get used to ignoring it because they don't normally have the child in the care, it's not going to work because they aren't going to get in the habit of checking the backseat because they don't normally have the child in the car.

Basically, it all comes down to human error. Unfortunately, people get preoccupied and don't pay attention to what they are doing. Everyone needs to slow down and pay attention to life, instead of worrying about what they are going to do the rest of the day. Worry about now!