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Strollerderby
Woman Leaves Baby on Train
Both my husband and I are famous for forgetting crucial items on a frequent basis, especially when it comes to kid’s needs like snacks or drinks. But leaving behind an actual baby? That hasn’t happened.
It did to a suburban Chicago mother. She’d gotten off a suburban Metra train in North Chicago and left behind her little 10 month old baby.
She realized what she’d done (I have no idea how long it took her) and immediately contacted North Chicago police. They called police in Waukegan, the train’s next stop, and police there met the train and wheeled the baby off in its stroller. The mother was reunited right away, which makes me think it was an accident, not an intentional abandonment she thought better of.
I’m wondering why not one person on the train thought to yell at her “Hey lady! Your baby!” before the train pulled away. But I can’t quite point the “bad mama” finger at this lady. As exhausted as I have been until recently when my 16-month-old son finally started sleeping through, I can totally imagine being so tired and preoccupied you just march right off the train and realize too late what you’ve done. And I cop to having more than a few scary moments when I suddenly panicked and turned around to count kids in the backseat because I didn’t 100 percent remember getting the baby in his seat (he’s a very quiet baby).
Moral of the story? A quick “baggage check” before leaving an areas is probably not a bad idea.
Photo: Pixadus
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3 Comments
PlumbLucky commented on Jun 26 09 at 7:34 amMy first trip out with my son was to purchase a diaper pail (yes, we should have gotten this item prior to his birth, but we didnt’, so I digress…). I was paying so much attention to making sure I had HIM in the car that I left the pail in the cart in the parking lot when I left. Realized it when I got home. Thank goodness it was the pail, and not him, who got left! I can completely sympathize with this woman…at 10 months mine is just starting to sleep through the night (but not always), I get roughly 5 hours a sleep on a weeknight before heading to work. Ugh.
ChiLaura commented on Jun 26 09 at 12:13 pmMy friends and I were recently talking about an article in the NY Times a while ago (months? a year?) about parents forgetting babies. The article focused on forgetting them in cars, which led to death for the babies. It happens to all kinds of parents, rich and poor, educated and not, in all kinds of circumstances and is most often nothing more than an accident. An accident that a parent can be tried and vilified for, as if the weight of killing your own child weren’t enough. How scary.
LDNmama commented on Jun 27 09 at 5:41 pmThis is not the fully story by a long shot. Apparently, the woman was on the train with her 10 month old and her 3 year old. When the doors opened at Waukegan, the 3yo took off and ran outside. The mother ran after the 3yo, turned around and the doors had closed and the train left the station. The mother was frantic and begged the station attendent to stop the train and the attendents response (which was in the paper) was that the woman was really angry and “needed to change her attitude.”
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