Very recently, another loss of an innocent child was reported when the mother of the five-year-old boy left him in the car for over five hours. We have heard of similar cases as such, some which ended well while others ended with death that could have clearly been prevented.

Recent report on the incident stated that the mother is now being probed under Section 31 of the Child Act for negligence.

Personally, as a mother of a 16 month-old boy, I think that it is the right action to be taken by law as to create a sense of awareness for other parents to not repeat the same mistake and take small matters for granted.

Last year in May, a three-year-old girl died of heatstroke when the father forgot that he had left her sleeping in the car when he went to rush to attend a cousin’s funeral.

There were no reports stating the father was being investigated for negligence and police classified the incident as sudden death as foul play has been ruled out.

On a separate event last month, a report was made on an incident where a mother left her three children in the car and locked it to go buy groceries, but within seconds after at the eldest six year-old child came out to hand over her mother’s phone that was left in the car, a car thief entered the car and drove away with one of her children who didn’t manage to escape from the car.

The story had a happy ending on the same day, as the car was located where three men in it were arrested and the child returned safely to his family.

My question in relation to these three separate events and other similar incidents unmentioned is, how can it be ruled out as foul play and why are the parents not charged for being accountable for their loss?

Last Wednesday on June 13, as reported by Associated Press, a 21-year old woman faces criminal charges in Beltrami Country, Minnesota, for leaving her four children aged 7-year-old, 4 year-old, and two 2-year-olds in the car with its windows rolled up while she ran to the store for 30 minutes..

Referring to the above incident, in other countries, such as the United States, and in comparison to the incidents that happened in Malaysia, the 21-year old mother in Minnesota was immediately charged for negligence. Whereas, in Malaysia, even after the death of a child, the mother is just being investigated while in some cases, the parents were not even held responsible for leaving their child unsupervised.

The role of a parent in providing our children with the best care possible, whether as a mother or a father is very clear, particularly for mothers since we went through the experience of carrying the child for nine months long before bringing life to this world and we have what they call “mother’s instincts”, making us the best caregiver of our own child.

And yet some of us seem to have lost our motherly instinct somewhere along the way and start taking small matters for granted, such as leaving our child unsupervised simply because we have other important matters in our hand, more important than our own child’s life and safety.

I have heard excuses like, “my child was sleeping, I didn’t want to wake him/her up” or “it was only for 5 minutes”, or even “I didn’t know/forgot/was too busy” as to why some mothers resorted to leaving their child unsupervised and in my view, I just see that these mothers clearly did not justify the variables that might possibly happen whatever their reasons are.

Assuming that we are in a safe place at any time of any day is one of the mistakes that we make that could lead to unfortunate and unexpected events that we could have prevented from happening.

Perhaps out biggest mistake is being complacent of our surrounding that we forget the affects it could have on our child’s safety.

Surely, waking a sleeping child can sometimes be an inconvenience to some parents, which is the solution to leave their child unattended in a vehicle while they are sleeping, seems like a better option.

But isn’t the inconvenience better than the loss of a life?

There is a saying to better be safe than sorry.

Perhaps parents should realize that when it comes to our child’s safety, it is not about convenience since parenting was never supposed to be easy in the first place.

*The views expressed here are the personal views of the writer.