Florida mom Eryn Vargo has developed a phone app to help parents remember to not leave their kids in hot cars. Called Baby OK, the app, which is currently still in the prototype phase, is intended to remind parents to get their kids before exiting a vehicle for good.
The app works like this: After parents connect it to their cars’ Bluetooth systems, the app will ask them if there is a child traveling with them anytime they open their doors. This could spell good news for harried parents worried about making one of the deadliest mistakes.
Many wonder how on earth any parent could forget they have a child in the car. I admit, I used to be one of these individuals. But now that I’m a mom of 3 with a hectic schedule, I have a much different perspective on the issue.
And the truth is, it happens. Often.
According to CNN, leaving kids in hot cars unintentionally likely occurs when there is a conflict between the brain’s “habit memory system” and its “prospective memory system.”
Prospective memory refers to the planning and execution of an action in the future, such as planning to take a child to daycare. Habit memory refers to tasks that involve repetitive actions that are performed automatically, as in routinely driving from one location to another, such as from home to work.
A suppression of prospective memory caused by the dominance of the brain’s habit memory system is an almost daily occurrence. It happens, for example, when we forget to interrupt a drive home to stop at the store for groceries. In this case, the habit memory system takes us directly home, suppressing our awareness (prospective memory) that we had planned to stop at the store.
When a parent is not typically on daycare drop-off duty, for example, he or she may drive directly to work out of habit and head into the building, forgetting that a child is still in the vehicle. This can result in tragedy.
According to a study published in Pediatrics, there have been 705 hot car deaths since 1998. Clearly, this is not as rare as we might hope.
For me, the prospect of leaving my child in the car accidentally is terrifying. Even though my older two sons are able to get themselves out at this point, my 2-year-old still is not, and given just how chaotic our schedules are, I shudder at the thought of this potentially happening to us.
We are diligent, but mistakes happen. And this one is too horrifying to imagine.
Though neither of our cars has Bluetooth capabilities (we’re still driving old school), many parents’ cars do. Perhaps there are some families who will greatly benefit from this mom’s ingenuity.