When I heard that teaser on the local news, I steeled myself for a sordid tale of a shameless hussy who locked her kid in a hot, airless car for hours to hit the mall. But here’s what really happened:

A woman drove to downtown Wellesley, Mass to run some errands.

Her eighteen-month-old was asleep in the car seat.

She parked the car on the street, rolled down the windows, and went into one of the shops. The street was probably visible from the shop, although I don’t know this for sure.

After 5 minutes someone noticed the solo baby and called the police.

About 5 minutes later the cops arrived and located the woman in the shop. They charged her with reckless endangerment and called child services.

I ask you: Is this an overreaction, or what?

Confession: I have been known to step out of the parked car for brief periods of time while the boys are still strapped in — for example, to pick up the dog at day care, or to run into the drive-in to pick up a takeout order. (In both cases, the car is parked right in front of the door, and I remain outside the building. I also sometimes take advantage of the brief, beautiful lull that ensues when they are both strapped in their seats in the driveway to run into the house so I can load bags into the car, pee, grab my coat, tidy up a few things, etc. I suppose that qualifies me for handcuffs.

I have never left the kids in the car to run INTO a store, but not because I think my children would suffer mentally or physically. No, it is chiefly because I am afraid of the kind of censure that this poor Wellesley woman is enduring. Frankly, I would be thrilled if I could park outside the convenience store, leave the kids behind, and run inside for a loaf of bread. (OK, that is a lie. If I were going to leave the kids behind I wouldn’t waste it on the convenience store. It is the liquor store run that would really benefit from an absence of children. Just think how that would look on the news.) Have you ever tried to control a toddler in a parking lot or a store aisle filled with breakables? Leaving them in the car is at least as safe as shopping.

In the Wellesley case, the cop interviewed on the news (female) opined that it is irresponsible to leave alone a baby for any length of time since “there could be a medical emergency.” I would counter that a sleeping child strapped in a car seat in a stationery car is probably safer than 99% of her counterparts at that given moment. We routinely leave unrestrained sleeping children alone for up to 11 hours a night, and as far as I know there is no requirement to station a lifeguard in front of a video monitor in your home for those overnight hours.

The woman-on-the-street who called the cops raised the only real safety issue here: “The windows were down and if we could get to the baby, so could anybody.” Abductions are rare and probably just as likely to occur in a crowded store. It was probably a bit of a risk for the mother to take, perhaps mitigated if she were keeping an eye on the car. Bad judgment, certainly. But criminally negligent? I feel the pain of the Good Samaritan who had an obligation, once she discovered the solo baby, to stick around until she was sure the child was safe. But the woman could have achieved this just as easily by poking her head in a few shops before she called the cops.

Am I way out of line here? Because this just seems like demonizing the mother.

The other day I took Minor to the playground downtown to play. He insisted on going into the kids’ clothing store to buy a lollipop (damn that store! Why not stick to clothes?). A woman was shopping in their with her two girls, and when we came back out to the playground one of the girls, a five-year-old, came out with us. The mother shopped for about half an hour while the girl continued to play with Minor. (She must have been an heiress because that place is stocked with $40 onesies and $50 infant concert t-shirts. Half an hour? She must have vacated her trust fund.) Finally the mother came back and said to me, “Really irresponsible, right, leaving my child out here while I was shopping? She could have fallen.” I could tell she was half-trying to apologize for sticking me with her kid, and half-trying to stave off any judgment I might be throwing her way. I responded, “She could have fallen if you were right here.”

I didn’t feel it was any huge imposition to keep an eye on her little girl. In fact, I keep an eye out for other children all the time, even if their mothers are right there, and other parents do the same for my child. In fact, the other day some other woman told Minor not to run with his lollipop, and I thanked her for looking out for him. I suppose I should also have thanked her for not reporting my dereliction of duty to the authorities.

What do you think? Is it ever acceptable to leave your child alone? At what age? Would you have called the police on the Wellesley woman? The shopping woman? On me, if you saw my children alone in the car in the driveway?