License Plate Number UCX 858

by

Patti Dickinson

If you're not up for a rant, better skip this blog.

Late this morning, I had to run Meghan, my high school sophomore, to the dentist. She had her four wisdom teeth out last Monday....carefully scheduled so as to leave enough recoup time to be ready for her final volleyball camp and then tryouts for the upcoming season. And oh, yes, the Jonas Brothers concert with a big group of her friends Wednesday night.

We knew after the surgery that the lower left tooth wasn't too cooperative during the extraction, and that the pain would be greater in that part of her mouth....lots of pain yesterday, and so in lieu of dragging the dentist off the golf course on a Saturday afternoon (long history of the Dickinson's always waiting until Saturday/Sunday to present symptoms of every ailment they have ever had) So I was being Queen of Proactivity and getting this handled during office hours. Sure enough, a dry socket. Nasty tasting gauze is stuffed into the complaining cavity and within thirty minutes she felt better. On the mend....again.

So we stop at the pharmacy on the way home to pick up her pain medicine. (And cherry Lifesavers to get the foul taste of the medically saturated gauze out of her mouth). When I pulled up to the pharmacy, there was a silver Pilot parked in almost three parking places. (Do you know how hard you have to work to get a small car to take up that many spaces???) Mild annoyance. So I go in, leaving Meghan in the car, get what I need, and leave. The car is still there. As we are leaving the parking lot, Meghan says, "That woman in the car next to us left her two kids in the car." I ask, "How old?" and she says, "Five and a little kid." Hmmm. So I turn around and come back into the parking lot to deal with this. Now I am wearing my Good Citizen hat. (I wear enough hats to open my own millinery!)

But she was leaving the parking lot. Sure enough, two kids in the car. Feeling like someone took the wind out of my sails.....a missed opportunity to be the kid-police.

Disbelief. After all that has been said about kids left in cars. It's close to 90 today. The car was in the sun. All the windows were up. Lots of bad guys in the world. What could possibly have been more important to her than her kids' safety? What possible scenario justifies this behavior? In the blink of an eye.....why would someone tempt fate this way?

Is it the "It can't happen to me" mentality? Isn't that the mentality that seventeen year olds use --- just having sex once and just having four beers and thinking they were okay to drive? But this mom wasn't seventeen. She's thirty-something. Old enough to know better. Wish I had had my chance to talk to her.

Wow.