No sooner are the holidays than it begins again: the time when children are “forgotten” at rest stops. But can that be coincidence?
You know that from pets: there is a season of acquisition and a season of abandonment. The time in between is often worryingly short. The purchasing season should start soon, so that clumsy puppies and chirping budgerigars can sit under the Christmas tree just in time for Christmas Eve. Shortly before carnival, when the recipients start to notice that pets want to go for a walk at six in the morning or spray their necessities on the sofa as they descend, the season of abandonment begins. “Animals are not Christmas presents,” warns the Animal Welfare Association every year.
The same is apparently true for children. A case from Bavaria shows once again that the relationship between legal guardians and supervisors and their children is subject to seasonal fluctuations. A 61-year-old from the Schwandorf district forgot his eleven-year-old grandson after a trip to the amusement park at a motorway rest area in Middle Franconia. According to the police, he only noticed the loss when he was back home in the Upper Palatinate. Grandpa thought the boy was sleeping on the back seat and didn’t notice that he had also got out when he stopped at the rest area. The grandson now has plenty of material for the next essay on “My best holiday experience”.
At least he’s not alone. If you enter “child rest area forgotten” on Google, you get more than seven million hits. Most children are “forgotten” during the holiday season. Was the father, who left two daughters at the rest stop on the way to Lake Garda, really just ready for vacation? Or was the idea of sipping a glass of wine alone in Malcesine in a few hours just too tempting?
Something else stands out. The most forgetful parents are male. Fathers in particular forget on the autobahns of this world that they have offspring – even if they are already teenagers. Sometimes it’s a matter of a collective family failure, especially in large families, where you can sometimes forget one or the other child. On the other hand, there are hardly any reports of mothers or grandmothers who continue their journey without their brood.
However, one has to give the forgetful fathers credit for the fact that they usually notice their mistakes at some point or have a bad conscience – depending on the extent of the calculation. After all, the father turned back at the Brenner Pass on the way to Lake Garda.