Is it ever ok to leave your children in the car on their own?

It’s a dilemma many parents have faced. You need to nip to the shop/pay for the petrol/grab a quick caffeine hit but you have the children with you in the car. So do you go through the whole rigmarole of unbuckling them and trouping them in with you? Or do you just lock the doors and run off to do what you’ve got to do?

One woman who very much falls into the ‘take them with you’ camp has penned a post about the moment she confronted a mum who left her children in the car to get a takeaway coffee.

Melinda Ayre from Australia wrote that as she was eating breakfast with a friend she noticed a mother park her car beside her and leave her three young children inside while she went to buy a coffee, only to return around 15 minutes later.

“The baby was asleep, but the two other children were upset and one got out of her seat belt to sit in the front seat of the car – with the engine running. Nice work absent mum,” she wrote on 9 Honey.

The woman went onto write that the mum didn’t even appear to be rushing, but chatted casually with the barista and some other women in the café. But as she watched the children get more distressed, she decided she needed to confront the mum.

“When she finally emerged and got into her front seat, I approached her and ruined her day I’m sure. I said that she’d been inside the café for almost fifteen minutes,” she continued.

The mum replied that she was just grabbing a coffee and found it difficult taking them inside to which Melinda replied.

“Look – I’m a mother too. And not always a brilliant one. But I do not and will never, leave my kids in a car by themselves. They get scared and really – how hard is it to either skip your morning coffee or take them all in for a babycino too?”

“A million things could happen. Mostly they don’t, so lazy parents keep on doing this crap.”

Melina finished her post by issuing a plea to parents to stop leaving kids alone in the car.

“If you’re ducking out of the car, even for a minute – take your kids with you. “I’m just paying for petrol” or “I’m just grabbing the paper” isn’t an excuse as far as I’m concerned.”

So what’s the law surrounding leaving children unsupervised in the car?

According to the Government website there isn’t a specific law surrounding the circumstances in which you can leave a child.

Various children’s charities recommend never leaving children unattended although the actual law is a pretty grey area. It’s an offence to abandon or neglect a child but some parents argue that a child who can be seen at all times cannot be described as abandoned.

Nevertheless, there have been cases where the police have taken a dim view of a parent who leaves a child on their own, no matter what the circumstances.

One case in point is that of dad-of-five, Tim Haines, who was arrested and prosecuted for leaving his daughter in the car while he went into a shop to buy Calpol. His children were not only put on the child protection register but he faced a year long legal battle to fight to stop his children being taken into care. It was a fight he eventually won, but the upset likely took its toll on the whole family.

And last year Rachel Stevens sparked a parenting debate after allegedly leaving her two daughters alone in her car while she ran errands.

The S Club 7 singer was reported to have parked in north London and then walked to the shops, leaving her little ones inside the car.

While many parents were quick to condemn the singer’s decision, others stepped in to defend the mum-of-two.

In the absence of an actual law, the official guidelines leave the decision about whether or not to leave a child in a car to the parent.

According to the Children and Young Person’s Act, “The law doesn’t say an age when you can leave a child on their own, but it’s an offence to leave a child alone if it places them at risk. Use your judgement on how mature your child is before you decide to leave them alone, e.g. at home or in a car.”

What do you think? Would you leave your child unattended in a car? Let us know @YahooStyleUK

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