'My Wife Leaves Our Baby Alone In The Car, So I Taught Her A Lesson'

When a dad discovered his wife regularly leaves their baby alone in the car while she’s picking up lunch or at the petrol station, he decided she needed to be taught a lesson. So he decided to ‘kidnap’ their son.

The concerned dad says he discovered a couple of months ago that his wife has a ‘habit’ of leaving their baby in the car when she’s just ducking into a store to get something quickly.

“We were ordering lunch on the Subway app and I told her to pick the location that has a drive thru that way we don’t have to go inside and take the baby out of the car just to clip him back in a few minutes later,” he explained on reddit.

“She told me it’s not a big deal to leave the baby in the car to run in and pick it up really fast. I had no idea she ever did this. I told her I was not comfortable with her leaving him in the car alone even for a minute and she told me she’s been doing it since he was born and it’s always been fine. She told me she does it to pick up food, run into the post office or pharmacy, etc. I was floored. We don’t live in a horrible area but it’s also not super safe either. I told her to not ever do this again.”

‘Did I go too far?’

The father-of-one said his wife told him she’d never even thought about the potential dangers of leaving their baby son in the car, and promised it wouldn’t happen again. But it wasn’t long before her husband discovered she had slipped back into her ‘horrible habit’.

“Yesterday as I was driving home from my brother’s house I spotted her car at the gas station near our place. It was parked in a spot up front and not a pump, so I figured she stopped in to grab some snacks which we like to do. I decided to stop and go in and say hi and get some food and I pulled in and parked next to her. However when I got there I was furious to find our son in his car seat. The car wasn’t even locked.

“I don’t know what came over me, but in that moment I decided to take my son and put him into my car (he’s got a car seat in there too). I then drove to the other side of the gas station parking lot and waited for my wife to come out. It took SIX MINUTES for her to appear. When she saw that he was gone she looked stunned for a second and then started to frantically look around and cry. I didn’t let it go on long, after this I saw her pull her phone out, presumably to call 911, and that’s when I pulled my car around to her. I parked, got out and walked around to my sons door, and opened it to show him to her.

“She looked extremely relieved but that quickly turned to anger with her asking me why I took him and did that to her. I told her she needed to learn her lesson and she promised to stop leaving him in the car, and that she was extremely irresponsible. It was so easy for me to pull up and take him. No one else at the gas station even noticed! So if he really was taken there would’ve been no help and it would’ve been 100% her fault.

“She proceeded to call me cruel and psychotic and tried taking our son out of my car into hers. I said no and that I would be driving him home, and I left. She came home not much later but ignored me the rest of the day.”

He says his wife asked for an apology, but he refused, saying she’s the one who needs to say sorry.

“She’s been guilt tripping me … saying no mother should experience the fear I put her through. Did I go too far?”

Is it ever ok to leave your baby in the car alone?

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Do you think this dad was justified in teaching his wife a lesson? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

65 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 09 Aug 2024
    10:09 am
I so hell yes. He spoke to her about this but still she kept doing it plus it is illegal. She is putting their child at risk and hopefully this huge shock will stop her from ever doing this again. It is not acceptable and she needs to understand that.

- - moneybags said
  - 04 Apr 2023
    9:35 am
No it’s never ok to do that and dad was correct as I’ve said to my friends if I see anyone do that I will take the kid out of car and call the police myself it doesn’t take long for someone to take a child without anyone knowing or for a child to die in a car so it should never be done ever

- - mom83823 said
  - 02 Jul 2022
    7:35 pm
It’s never okay to leave a baby in an UNLOCKED car. The husband is right. The wife should realised her action is wrong. Unlocked car is potential for things to go horribly wrong.

- - ozstarlett said
  - 27 Jun 2022
    8:36 pm
completely wrong to leave child in car – but certainly don’t agree with kidnapping either.

- - mom486391 said
  - 10 May 2022
    9:57 pm
I know it’s annoying but it really doesn’t take that long to unclip a buckle and carry your baby into the petrol station

- - zamnelna said
  - 06 Apr 2022
    4:53 pm
As a mother of a child that passed away, there is a large difference between that debilitating fear that you lost your child, and the heartbreaking knowledge that you will never see them again. Despite him possibly saving his child’s life (with the scare), he also saved his wife from feeling that horrendous pain and possible guilt added in. He ABSOLUTELY did the right thing imo. She was being lazy and immensely irresponsible.

- - momkelkiv said
  - 05 Apr 2022
    10:02 pm
This dad is completely justified. If she had just done it as a once off for example, I get that but she had done this many times which is highly irresponsible and negligent. Like someone else said cars can heat up extremely quickly in the sun. And of course the obvious case we sometimes see on the news where someone has stolen a car with a baby inside!

- - Emma said
  - 05 Apr 2022
    8:49 pm
It might have been extreme but leaving a baby in an unlocked car is just irresponsible. I don’t leave my son in the car even to pay for fuel, but if it’s absolutely necessary the least you can do is lock the door. That said, cars can heat up ridiculously fast in the sun, it’s just not worth it.

- - Kathy Z said
  - 30 Mar 2022
    1:00 am
Theoretically should never leave a baby in the car alone. But in practice how many people will take the baby with them only pay for petrol in petrol station? I will leave my kid in the car if I only pay for petrol, lock the car. Within 2 minutes. The dad is worried about the baby, completely understandable. I think the mum would feel she learnt from his action although she was angry. It is also understandable that the mum was angry, she was actually angry about her husband put her in desperate position when she discovered her son was disappeared.

- - romvar said
  - 26 Mar 2022
    9:41 am
If I was the father I would have just got into the driver’s seat until the mother came out. She would have realized pretty quickly that her husband could have been anyone. Never leave a child alone in a car!

- - Zmijka86 said
  - 14 Mar 2022
    8:14 pm
Its never ok to leave a baby alone in the car.

- - Lisa said
  - 02 Mar 2022
    8:33 am
I wonder if her anger is more about the fact that she was caught out leaving the baby in an unlocked car for so long, rather than her husband’s actions? I’m stunned that she didn’t even lock the car. Maybe his actions were a bit harsh but it’s obvious their talk about the dangers of leaving the baby in the car didn’t work.

- - ~Loui~ said
  - 01 Mar 2022
    12:11 am
“….Is it ever ok to leave your baby in the car alone?’ No. nah, negative, Six minutes is waaayyyy too long. The temperature in the car would have been rising too.,

- - snazzy007 said
  - 27 Feb 2022
    8:21 pm
Wow this is so scary you never know what may happen

- - mom481486 said
  - 27 Feb 2022
    10:22 am
Never Ok to leave a baby in a car!

- - mom223151 said
  - 26 Feb 2022
    1:59 am
Hope she now knows the dangers from leaving a child in the car. It’s a definite no no and she I feel is putting her child at great risk.
She needs to change her behaviour.

- - Mum2904 said
  - 25 Feb 2022
    5:52 pm
Scary stuff

- - mumma said
  - 25 Feb 2022
    3:23 pm
Wow! Leaving the baby alone, car unlocked and she took 6 minutes and clearly wasn’t keeping one eye on the car either.
The Dad was totally right to teach her a lesson. Not should he apologise either.
What the heck was she thinking

- - smart_ass said
  - 25 Feb 2022
    2:48 pm
I think ‘never’ – anything can happen in a split second. Too dangerous and too risky.

- - tessie said
  - 25 Feb 2022
    12:56 pm
It’s so dangerous to leave children in a car especially a baby. I don’t think he went too far after all, she said she wouldn’t do it again. Anyone could have pulled in and taken the baby then what would she have said? I think next time he should call the police and say there’s a baby in a car and no-one is around. That would definitely give her a scare. We live in a small country town but I would always take my boys in with me. I think the wife needs to think long and hard about what she’s doing wrong and she certainly doesn’t deserve an apology