Hot Weather Kills Babies 3 Days In A Row

Cover page of dead overheated baby story - Israel Ha'yom - 16-July-2013

The last three days, three babies were found dead in their family car. They died from suffocation inside a closed car left in the sun. The number of incidents is so high, it is in the front pages. Is it hard to understand how a father can forget his one year daughter in the car? Then it's harder to understand how three fathers forget three days in a row. These kind of deaths are not new in Israel. It has happened in the past. Death of babies by parent negligence is jarring. Death by forgetting a baby in the car on the way to daycare is even more revolting. One is not sure if to blame the parent, and charge him with the child's death. Or to commiserate and feel a parent's anguish. The police does not recommend to prosecute a parent in these cases. The though is, a parent losing a child in this kind of event is punished enough.

The question we hear in the press is: “Can this kind of event happen to me? Can it happen to anyone?” To answer the question, psychiatrists, “super nannies”, judges, past events parents (with children that died and lived), and child care experts are solicited for their opinion. Some say it's as common as forgetting your sunglasses or keys in the car. Some say it's disturbing and indicative of negligence and demand punishment of the highest order. But there are no real questions into the state of the parents. Are these parents which tend to forget things in general? We all know of people who lose their keys or lock themselves out of the car “all the time”. Are these parents experiencing high stress at this point in time? Do these parents happen not to be the ones responsible for taking the kids on a regular basis? Did something out of the ordinary distract them on this day? The big questions on what makes people forget kids in general are not debated at all. Maybe it's too soon to get into the hard issues and that will take some time.

A question that we don't hear is what makes the parents so stressed? What will create so much pressure on a man to completely forget a child? Israelis may not have a wide perspective to ask this question. Yet, I see this as a sign of daily stress over and above ones ability to function well. Life in Israel is stressful to many people. Stresses come from all directions, to some its simply the stressful environment. The press is full of fear monger stories: Iranians are planning to annihilate the state with nuclear bombs, the Palestinians are going to ruin the security and economy, African refugees are taking over the state... just pick something and you will find a stressful angle. Then there is the true rat race stress which seems to be zooming faster every day. The life in Israel has an incredible amount of “keeping up with the Joneses” jealousy and racing forward to keep up with the developing western world standard of living. But the question everyone is afraid to ask, is why is this happening to some people but not to others? Well, there is going to be more on this in the press, so stay tuned.

To be continued ...