Mom’s, do you think its okay to leave your small kids in the car while you run in to pay for gas? what if you lock the door and crack the windows? would you do this or take your kids out of the car seat every time to come inside with you?
Autocare
Place to pump your car
Jun
27
Is it okay to leave your kids in the car at the gas pump while you run in to pay?
Posted in Driving Ethics | 44 Comments »
44 Responses
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Never a good idea.
I suggest paying at the pump.
August 26th, 2009 at 6:19 am
i take my son everytime. it is a pain…but you just never know what can happen.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:07 am
I don’t. In the event I have to run in, whether to pay or grab a drink I take my daughter in with me. It’s a pain in the butt, but a cop friend of mine suggested:
“Never leave anything in the car that you wouldn’t want stolen”
August 31st, 2009 at 2:05 am
I think it is fine. I saw on Dr. Phil once, there was a lady who got arrested because she buckled her kids in their car seats and then went to return the shopping cart!! Now, that’s going too far! There are people in this world who just will not mind their own business!
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:49 pm
When I got kids in the car and am in a public place, such as a gas station, I use my card so I don’t have to go in and pay. I wouldn’t feel safe especially since it is hotter out and I wouldn’t want to leave the car on or the windows open while I have kids in the car. I think if you have to pay at like a both near the gas pumps that would be okay but not have to actually go in a store. But when I run into my house and have kids in the car, I think it is okay to leave them out there for a very short time.
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I pay at the pump…but otherwise she always comes with me. I’d much rather be safe than sorry, even if your kid ends up fine with the outcome people see this stuff and can’t wait to call the cops.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Of course your have to take the child in the store with you. the car could catch on fire, the child could choke on something, someone could bust the window and steal the child. Every time someone leaves their child unattended in a car that person is risking that child’s life.
September 4th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I live in on a military base and if any parents are caught doing this they immediately get reprimanded by the mp’s and their commanders are notified. We don’t have pay at the pump over here in Germany (it sucks!) but you have to take the kids in everytime. My husband told me he did that once and I freaked. I’m the one in the military so I’ll get in trouble for everything my civillian dependants do.
September 5th, 2009 at 12:52 am
I live in NJ so I don’t have to worry about that, it gets pumped for me lol. But when traveling out of state with my children, yes I do take them out of their car seats and bring them in. It’s a pain, but I’d rather know that they are safe with me than worry about them when they are out of my sight.
September 5th, 2009 at 9:47 am
As long as I can see the car from the counter, I don’t have a problem with it.
I’m not a mum, though. Am I still allowed to answer this question? It is the Parenting section, and I am a parent…
September 7th, 2009 at 2:53 am
I think that it is a horrible idea to leave a kid in the car unattended! You can be putting that child in terrible danger and that is a horrible situation. I would take my child inside with me because you would think that you would care about the kid and not want anything to happen to them.
September 10th, 2009 at 4:24 am
I’ve wondered this too what other parents do.
I’ve never left my daughter in the car and it can be a hassle taking them out and securing back in of the car seat for such a quick trip but I think it’s not worth the risk.
A cashier at a Salisbury’s petrol station once said to me that they get one of their staff to guard your car with any children inside while you pay for the petrol, I thought that was a good thing but I still choose to take my toddler with me anyway.
September 11th, 2009 at 7:58 am
I don’t think that is ever a smart idea. Too many things can go wrong and I’d just rather not chance it.
Besides, you can pay at the pump. Problem solved.
If I had to go inside to pay, then I’d be hauling my kids out with me and into the store.
September 13th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
When I am getting gas I pay at the pump with my debit card cause I dont want to leave my children in the car alone but it is a hassel to gather up everyone to go inside and pay…
September 16th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
to be honest its your choice but if you want to be extra safe take them in with you i know its a pain but at least you know they are safe.!!
September 19th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
It isn’t safe, and it isn’t legal to leave them in the car. If you can’t pay at the pump then you either have to take them in with you or get gas when you are by yourself.
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:23 am
It takes about 5 seconds to pop the door lock and kidnap a child. Do you like those odds? If I cared so little for my child, I wouldn’t have one. (I’ve seen women – and not young kids, either – leave infants in shopping carts on the checkout line in the supermarket, while they just ran back to get something they forgot. Scary! I could have walked out with about 6 infants so far in my life – situations in which no one was close enough to notice if I did it.)
Leave them home, pay at the pump (it’s easier anyway, kids or no kids) or take them in with you. Please. I don’t need to read about another missing child.
September 24th, 2009 at 5:17 am
I hope you’re joking.
I would absolutely call the police if I saw a small child in a car unattended. I don’t care where.
September 27th, 2009 at 4:29 am
I always pay at the pump. The rare times that I do run in to get something. I do leave my son in the car.
But I do realize that I live in a very different place from most people. I don’t even lock my house, I don’t even know where the keys are to my house. We don’t take the keys out of our cars either. If I would take my keys out, I would never find them. But this is how we live. Never ever had a problem with anything. We went on vacation for two weeks. Didn’t lock the house and had four cars sitting in the driveway with keys in them. No one touched a thing. I love not having to worry about things.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
No i would not leave my children in a car… I would rather pay at the pump, or take my kids with me.
I just wouldn’t take the risk.
October 1st, 2009 at 11:49 am
I have gotten in the habit of paying at the pump. But if that for some reason wasn’t an option – It is always worth the extra effort to take the kids in with you.
Crack the windows? No way! I’m not going to leave my little one sitting in a car as it fills with the fumes of a gas station. Whenever my mom left me in the car while she ran in to pay – I always felt better with the windows up. But I am not going to leave my little kid alone in the car with the windows rolled up either.
So nope. In my opinion it is not ok to leave small children in the car while you run inside to pay for gas. I know they will probably be ok. But I just don’t take that chance. (Although, I don’t guess I would look down too much on other parents if they had a few small kids and left them in the car. … But I might offer to take the money in for them or just pay with my card if they could give me the right amount of cash.)
October 1st, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I personally will not do it.
I don’t care if it is a pain w/ 2 small children (unstrapping and re-strapping car seats- that’s what I don’t like anyway, lol), I just can’t do it. For that reason I avoid it at all costs. You wouldn’t believe how many late night trips I’ve made to the store after they are in bed and home w/ dad. (Although if I didn’t have that option I would take them in with me.)
I will leave them in the car to put the shopping cart away if I can see them the entire time I’m doing so, that’s it. Even then, the door is locked the entire 5 seconds I’m gone (I sometimes feel silly about that b/c it literally takes seconds and I click the lock button 10 times while I’m going it).
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:43 am
I pay at the pump with my debit card so I never have that dilemma. I don’t think I’d leave them in the car though. I’d be more worried about them getting locked in or over-heating than about someone kidnapping them.
October 4th, 2009 at 5:18 am
I tend to go to someone who will pump for me. But I have done both, leaving in the car and taking with me. It really depending on several things for me, like how busy the pumps were, how busy the store was, the age of my child at the time, and whether or not I would be in and out. I’m not leaving a baby in the car by themselves, no matter if I’m getting a paper or returning a shopping cart or paying for gas.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Never!!! You never know whats going to happen.
October 8th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I left my daughter in the car. (This was before pay at the pump was common.) She was in clear view, (the gas station had glass windows all along the front) and I was never gone more than a moment.
Perfectly safe. (I wasn’t in a messy divorce with a non-custodial parent involved, so NOBODY was going to kidnap my child.)
October 8th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I’m a dad and I do it. But only if I can pay outside at the window but the window has to be real close to the car. And I always lock the door.
October 12th, 2009 at 12:33 am
I’m Chris’s wife and absolutely not! I saw one mother do that a gas station Chris was pumping the gas for us. This young mother left her 3 year old in the car along while she paid for her gas. She was gone less then 2 minutes and some one else was getting into the car. I called 911 and my husband went over and pulled the guy out of the car and held him till the cops got there. The man was arrested and the mother was charged with neglect and being irresponsible with her child.
The cop told her that if Chris my husband and I hadn’t responded the way that we did her child would be gone and maybe dead.
Do not in any way leave your child alone in the car when your walking away from it. It’s not worth the chance, and not everyone will respond or pay attention like my husband and I did. All it takes is that one or two seconds for something horrible to happen then you have to live with this for the rest of your life.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
People so hate being behind me when filling up with petrol as i take my kids out of the car.
My 11 month old is the most difficult as i have to get her out of her car seat etc…i always think its best to be safe.
I mean not only could someone steal your car, but what would happen if your inside paying and there was a fire! this scares the hell outta me so yes always take your kids inside to pay
October 17th, 2009 at 3:01 am
No, it’s not okay to leave them while you go in, and it’s not okay for you to lock doors and crack windows either… they aren’t dogs! If I go, my kids go with me, no exceptions (unless hubby or another adult is in the car).
October 19th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
It’s sad to say, but too many bad things can happen in that one minute that you are gone..and have happened to others…..it’s just not worth the risk.
I suggest paying at the pump or taking someone with you when you get gas. It’s the only safe way other than taking them out of the car to go to the window..
October 21st, 2009 at 10:04 pm
i’m a nanny and i have the ‘other people’s children’ mentality. i won’t even put money in the meter without both kids standing right next to me. i don’t gas up their car so that doesn’t aply to me. i think that has a lot to do with being responsible for someone else’s children. i grew up in a small town and was left by myself all the time mostly when i was older and was given the keys to go sit in the van when i was bored or whatever. i always locked the door. etc. . my cousin also grew up in a smaller town, but she leaves her kids in the running car while she goes in to tim hortons. i wouldn’t do this. when i was 3 my brother was 1. we went camping and my parents back the camper into the site and both got out to find where was best to put it/level it out. they told me to keep an eye on my brother. so i did. i watched him somehow get out of his car seat (this kids was seriously hudini) crawl over into the front seat, pull himself up on the steering wheel and fall against the gear thing and put the car into drive. my parents clued in when the camper started pulling away, and my dad ran and jumped in the car. but it is safe to say my parent’s would NEVER have thought my brother could have done that. .
addition: just a thought. is it even safe when you are paying at the pump? i know of MANY people who have been standing right outside the car putting gas in it and someone jumped in a drove off. although i live in the car theft capital of canada…. does this not happen else where?
October 24th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
my husband got gas on the way home from work. Problem solved, not a kid with him.
October 27th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Nope I don’t think it is.
But because of how much of a pain it is to bring 3 kids into a gas station for less than 5 minutes and then longer to buckle them back in, I only pay at the pump.
Kaylynn: I have thought of that for the longest time, that is why I lock all the doors, but the drivers and take the keys out of the ignition and hold on to them, I need them anyway to scan my rewards card thing.
October 29th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I NEVER left my children in the car alone. My suggestion… use your cc to pay outside at the pump.
October 31st, 2009 at 3:47 am
This makes me incredibly glad that I live in a state where it is illegal to pump your own gas.
I have only had to face this problem while on road trips and either my husband was with me or I actually took the kids out of the car and lugged them into wherever I had to go to pay. No one gets near my kids without my knowledge!
October 31st, 2009 at 4:12 am
I’d take them in u can never be to sure. Also i pay at the pump everytime, it makes it so much easier & faster.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:45 pm
I would never do that. I would pay at the pump or bring my child with me.
Edit: I don’t think it is legal to leave a child in the car unattended where I live, in PA.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I never thought about this. So far I haven’t gone out alone with my baby. (she’s only 8 weeks old) So when I get gas, someone is always in the car with her.
I would either pay at the pump or take her in with me. I hardly EVER pay inside, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal…
November 5th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Ever since my kids were born if they were in the car with me I would either pay at the pump or pay a little extra to have the gas pumped for me so I could be in the car with them. I am sorry to say that I don’t trust anybody when it comes to my kids. I would love to live in a world where I didn’t have to worry about what could happen to my kids if I let them out of my sight but I don’t think that world exists. These days I get my gas pumped in the morning after I drop my kids off at school and while my kids are now 10 and almost 6 I still wouldn’t leave them in the car alone.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:35 am
I would never do that! Bad things can happen in minutes!!!
November 8th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
PAY AT THE PUMP… Don’t leave your child unattended at a GAS STATION or anywhere. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.
November 9th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Um no… not a good idea at all. I always pay at the pump… and if i can’t she comes in with me.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Around here you would be arrested if you left your kids alone in your car. No it is not okay to neglect/endanger your children. I have three children and if I didn’t have the time to take them in with me every time then I didn’t have the time to go. I would get them out of their car seats just to “run in for a carton of milk”. These are my children, they are my responsibility. If you don’t want the responsibility don’t have the children.