Lethbridge women charged after leaving their children in car for an hour

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by V

I think you understand sarcasm as well as my 6 year old boy.

In any case, Cliff is right. Anyone that thinks one offence should constitute children being taken away from their parents have had no exposure to the foster system in Alberta.

While I think your aversion to calgaryblood's insane sterilisation overreaction is spot on, I also think the simple "second chance" is a big under-reaction.

There's a middle ground. I don't see any way child welfare isn't heavily involved regardless of whether the kids enter the system or not.

They could have died, pretty simply. Maybe this was one big mistake, maybe not. Easy to sit here dreaming up revenge fantasies, but impossible to know the right solution for these kids (which should be the goal).

[CaptainCrunch]

I think a common sense sentence would be in order, 80 hours each of them scrubbing the outdoor toilets in banff and surrounding campgrounds in the middle of July should to it.

[Minnie]

And another one. Global is just reporting on it now. Dad leaves kids in car and goes into Casino (Calgary casino in the NE). 10 and 11 year old kids, car was running, doors locked. Dad was arrested but on different charges. :/

[CRXguy]

Definitely Asian.

[Zarley]

At least the car was running.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Zarley

At least the car was running.

Yeah that seems way less bad, especially with 10-11 year olds. Lethbridge was a toddler strapped into a car seat and another crawled under a pile clothes. Almost sounds heinous in comparison.

[Violator]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Yeah, the demands to take the kids away are knee-jerk.

First, would that really be best for the kids - being taken away from their parents and sent to home to live with strangers? Are they subject to chronic and sustained abuse? We don't know.

And second, we don't have the capacity. If every child in Alberta who was exposed to this level of negligence was taken away from their parents we'd need to quadruple the number of foster homes in the province. Honestly - where do people think kids taken away from their parents end up? How many people in this thread are willing to take in and raise 5 and 7 year old kids who have had neglected and vulnerable upbringings? None, I suspect.

Don't we have mines or farms these kids could work at?