Parents in Utah left their 3 year old at a corn maze. They didn't notice he was missing until the next morning.

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46116365&nid=148&title=utah-toddler-left-overnight-at-corn-maze-wasnt-reported-missing-until-morning

Most likely another instance where there are too many kids and not enough supervision. The article makes it sound like the child's family might be in a polygamist situation. Glad the child is ok. This could have ended so badly.

A few families living in the same house, ya, sounds like polygamy to me also. I wonder if the police SGT isn't related to yours truly. Reminds me of " Home alone ", too many kids and people dumb enough not to have a system to keep track of them all.

Yep. Home alone pretty much describes the situation.

Way too many kids.

And how come Utah has so many corn mazes ?

They came from Utah to CA for a vacation, They had too many kids for one car so the kids piled into whatever vehicle was handy when it was time to leave.

I assumed they had some system for keeping track of their children since both parents were qualified teachers who had taken classes on many trips.

I was wrong.

We all returned to DH's and my place and I started dinner. When I was counting the plates and silver I noticed that we needed one less than we had used earlier. I counted the kiddies and realized one was missing.

Everyone got crazy and ran around yelling a each other. The little boy was at a nice lady's house having a hot meal. She bought him a bus ticket and sent him to Sacramento where the boy told her his granny lived. Of course his parents were not there but they did get back together by midnight since the lady told the police what she was doing and they relayed the information.

I hope these parents learned a lesson but I'm not sure they did. Another toddler was later killed by a car when the kid was playing in the street.

Isn't that normal for children of the corn?

Snort!

Double snort with a tear running down my leg.

You know the right tailor can keep the boner from tearing his pants'leg.

LOL! I could have baptized my computer's keyboard with that if I had been drinking anything.

Accidentally leaving him there? Understandable.

Not realizing it until the next morning? Negligent.

Leaving Wrote:
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> Accidentally leaving him there? Understandable.
>
> Not realizing it until the next morning?
> Negligent.


Absolutely!

My mom had only six kids, but had she not had a nanny from the time shortly after #5 was born until I was seven and at least two kids were off for college and missions, I could see kids in our family being left at various destinations, though it probably would have been a kid older than three who was left. I think even my mom got the importance of keeping an eye on a three-year-old. I'm sure my parents would have noticed the empty bed when they put the kids down for the night, though.

While I'm reluctant to give them a pass on even letting a three-year-old into a maze of any kind without holding an adult's hand, realistically not every parent is as paranoid as my wife and I are. Though I get how it could happen, I'm even more hesitant to give them a pass on not accounting for every kid before the vehicle or vehicles departed, and the fact that it took until morning to notice the child's absence is all the more appalling. (How much attention was the little guy getting on a nightly basis if parents could put their children down for the night and not miss him?) I hate to make too much of an error in judgment, but the kid will have issues related to this probably for the rest of his life.

With a really large family, every outing almost has to be approached as a teacher would approach a field trip. You don't leave home without the inhaler or Epi-pen of any kid who may need one, and you account for every kid at every check-point, and especially before you leave each check-point. My siblings all have five to eight kids, and they approach any trip away from home with almost military precision.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2017 10:10AM by scmd.

I am from a large family. My parents took roll constantly.

I am from a large family. Nothing remotely like this ever happened. Kids go to bed and nobody notices a child missing. I would guess that this wasn't an incident of neglect, but instead an ingrained pattern of neglect. I hope that DCFS takes a very close look at this parenting (or lack thereof) situation.

The closest incident of which I know of such nature in the history of my extended family occurred when my cousin and her husband, who have eight children, accidentally left their eleven-year-old son playing electronic games at a pizza parlor five minutes from their home until both parents arrived home in separate cars and realized that neither parent had the eleven-year-old son with them. They were freaked out even then and were much more cautious in the future.

A three-year being left old overnight is, indeed, an ingrained pattern of neglect. I, too, hope that DCFS investigates this incident and the family involved very thoroughly.

I am from a large family and this happened ALL THE TIME. We left my sister overnight in the next town once. We left kids at church too often to count. My parents aren't screw-ups, either. Overwhelmed at that time, certainly. I think in the 70's and 80's people were amused by this. Now it makes the papers and everyone is appalled. The kid is fine. His mom wasn't trying to abandon him. I'm not sure why everyone is ready to throw the mom in jail.

That responsibility includes not leaving them outside in an effin maze.

So, if something horrible had happened to this child, your opinion would change? Or is this an "All's well that ends well" take on losing a kid?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2017 09:19PM by Beth.

Beth Wrote:
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> That responsibility includes not leaving them
> outside in an effin maze.
>
> So, if something horrible had happened to this
> child, your opinion would change? Or is this an
> "All's well that ends well" take on losing a kid?

I agree, Beth. And not noticing that your three-year-old is missing until the next morning after he is left somewhere the night before is far from the worst reason I've heard for throwing a parent into jail in my opinion.

Well my parents would have been thrown in jail seven times over, then, at least. My mom was actually chosen Utah's mother of the year, and I agree with that. We all grew up well-adjusted and high achieving. I think of this the same way as when I was a kid and any of my classmates who were at all active got a broken arm or leg at some point from falling out of a tree. Today their parents would be arrested for neglect and abuse. When I was a kid we all ran wild from house to house in the neighborhood, rode our bikes miles from home until dark when our moms yelled from the porch for us to come home. Now parents don't let kids walk home alone from school or walk to the park to play. I remember a friend's recent Facebook post about how upset her daughter was that she wouldn't allow her to go to a sleepover, because such awful things happen at sleepovers. At one point do kids get to make decisions and learn from the consequences? We seriously underestimate kids today. When I was 9 I was babysitting the younger kids and making a complete (main course, bread, 2 side dishes) dinner for the whole family. Kids are up to this, we just don't think they are. So I know we think it's a different world and kids aren't safe if we let them do that. I remember my older sisters telling us how a creep approached them in the park trying to get them into his car so he could expose himself. They laughed at him and laughed again later when they told us about it. They were under 8 years old at the time.

Beth is right. The mom should be prosecuted and the kids should be in foster care until she comes up with a serious plan to protect them from obvious danger.

a nonny mouse Wrote:
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> Well my parents would have been thrown in jail
> seven times over, then, at least. My mom was
> actually chosen Utah's mother of the year, and I
> agree with that. We all grew up well-adjusted and
> high achieving. I think of this the same way as
> when I was a kid and any of my classmates who were
> at all active got a broken arm or leg at some
> point from falling out of a tree. Today their
> parents would be arrested for neglect and abuse.

I worked emergency rooms for a few years in medical school and internship. I never called or saw any of my colleagues call child welfare authorities, much less saw evidence of parents being jailed, for any kid who broke his or her arm from falling out of a tree except for the eighteen-month-old who fell fifteen feet after he supposedly climbed the tree himself. Whether he really did climb the tree or whether he broke the arm some other way, he should have been supervised more closely. As far of the rest are concerned, based on my own experiences, I would have to consider your words concerning the involvement of authorities in the lives of families to be nothing more than hyperbole. Others with even more experience in dealing with child welfare agencies should feel free to chime in with their own experiences, but my experience has been that representatives of the agencies under-react rather than over-react when encountering cases of suspected abuse and neglect.

P.S. With no intended disrespect toward your mom, who may very well have been deserving of the accolades, those with the power to bestow such awards in Utah have been known to grant mother-and-father-of-the-year awards to marginally functioning parents.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2017 12:02AM by scmd.

There is a limit to how much time can pass without accounting for everyone and overnight is way past that limit.

Some parents are just scattered brain or suffer from ADHD. I was accidentally left (not overnight, thank goodness) at every mall, Sears, Penny's, and grocery store that you can imagine. I really should have had an ID bracelet attached to my wrist.

It's unimaginable how parents would overlook a child was missing overnight unless they were drunk.

It's a dereliction of duty not to keep track of little ones, no matter how many there are or how many share a household. More reason to do head counts.

Sheesh. CPS had better do its due diligence because that is just not normal.

She never would have left a kid anywhere. She had 6 children. My kids can attest to the fact that it made me neurotic about my own kids.

My neighbors have 6 kids and I HAVE NO DOUBT they never would have left a child, let alone not noticed he was missing for a NIGHT.

I heard this on the news and was so shocked. I don't think the family should be able to get the child back at least until they can show they take better care of their kids. It seemed to me from the local news that they just saw it as a little mistake.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2017 05:45PM by cl2.

Jesus H. Christ on a crutch. Our younger daughter took off at the county fair once during one of those "turn your head for second" moments and we instantly started searching the crowd and backtracking. Luckily, between her remembering to look for help when she realized she was lost at the same time the police on site knew there was a little lost girl, minutes later we found her safe & sound, hanging out with two Ventura Police.

"Multiply and replenish": so if you lose one or two, you have plenty of replacements........

According to an article, they are polygamists. Hey probably thought he was with one of the other 'mothers' but they should have checked.

bona dea Wrote:
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> According to an article, they are polygamists. Hey
> probably thought he was with one of the other
> 'mothers' but they should have checked.

You're probably right about the mother thinking the child was with one of the other mothers, and you're definitely right that she should have checked, regardless.

I served my internship in an ER in California where a large portion of the population had backyard in-ground swimming pools. There were (and still are) entirely too many drownings and near drownings, and most of them happened when everyone assumed someone else was watching or taking charge of a child.

My parents left my siblings and me alone for a week when I was ten. They flew to California and left us in a Manhattan apt. When they came back, Dad beat us. He was angry.

wow

Despite it all, and it's a whole fucking lot, you have chosen (?) to be a wonderful person. I think it's a choice. A hope that you won't let anyone extinguish. A hope that despite all the bad, and there is a shitton of bad, the good - we live for the good and the hope that there will continue to be more good and better and fuck them, they will not beat us anymore.

We will make the good and find the good and share the good.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2017 09:23PM by Beth.

I love you back. The magic mushroom grows best on manure.

And the parents were arrested for child abuse?

Don't count on it.

giving birth to me. As it was, she could't carry me to term.

My son is an "only" because his father wouldn't lift a finger to help care for him, and I realized I could not deal with more than one AND return to work, which son's father insisted on, ASAP.

I was older and far more mature when I inherited my other 3 kids by marriage. Their Dad was super-competent (counting noses about ever 90 seconds or so) and between us, we never misplaced a child.

catnip Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> giving birth to me. As it was, she could't carry
> me to term.
>
> My son is an "only" because his father wouldn't
> lift a finger to help care for him, and I realized
> I could not deal with more than one AND return to
> work, which son's father insisted on, ASAP.
>
> I was older and far more mature when I inherited
> my other 3 kids by marriage. Their Dad was
> super-competent (counting noses about ever 90
> seconds or so) and between us, we never misplaced
> a child.

Four kids between the two of you was probably not a bad number for two mature and conscientious parents. With the litter-like families that some Mormons and fundies have, even normal conscientious parenting won't get the job done.

Mother and I were in J.C. Penney's, down in the El Cajon Valley in San Diego. It had an upstairs that only covered half of the building. If I could pull loose from my mother's hand and scurry up those stairs, looking over the balcony at the activity on the first floor was almost as entertaining as TV. Definitely better than being dragged along by the hand and not having a chance to really LOOK at anything.

From my spot on the railing, I could watch the stairs that lead up from the first floor. If I saw my mother coming up, I would wiggle into a hiding place in a circular rack of clothes and stand very still, not making a peep when she called. When she moved away from my hiding place, I could venture out and examine things again.

She would find me sooner or later, when my little ADD brain would hyper-focus on something interesting and I forgot to keep an eye out for her.

I WANTED to get away from her, so that I could look at whatever interested me, and not be pulled away. My kids never seemed to want to roam on their own. I used to wonder about that, because it seemed to me that wanting to explore without parental hindrance was the normal thing to do.