Editorial: Leaving baby a mistake

When you have a baby, you're not just given booties and stretch and grows.

You find you become a magnet for people offering advice on how best to raise your child.

While most of the time the advice is helpful, sometimes it's not - a midwife (yes a midwife) advised me against giving my baby formula milk - referring to it as "the devil's juice".

You're also told how you should sleep your baby, if you should wake them for feeds, when to start feeding them solids ... the list goes on.

But some things go without saying, as it goes in the category of common sense.

Among those things are leaving your baby in a car while you go shopping.

I know some horrible parents do worse things to their children, but what on earth possessed a mother to leave a baby in a car in Porirua at the weekend?

The story attracted media attention after a shopper noticed the baby in a capsule with a note saying its mother was shopping and to call the mobile number on the note if there were any issues.

What a shocker.

We don't know the circumstances behind this case as no formal complaint has been made. It could be the mother desperately needed time out for the sake of the baby's safety?

Either way, I'm sure most mothers and fathers would have been horrified upon hearing about this story.

Thank goodness there are plenty of vigilant members of the public around to keep children safe. Here's hoping this mother has recognised what she did was wrong and won't ever put her child in such danger again.