(Update! The post below was written in 2015. Since then I have developed a more refined solution to the problem. You can visit babyinthecar.com for more info).
Every summer there are all sorts of ads on the radio and flyers on the wall warning about leaving a baby in the car. After a very short time, the car heats up to well over 100 degrees and the baby can die. This is even on days where it isn’t terribly hot outside.
For the most part, parents don’t leave their baby in the car on purpose. It’s always always a mistake. And often one that comes when a parent has a break in their normal routine. That throws the habitual autopilot off, and the parent can completely forget that the baby is in the car.
Of course, the ads on the radio and flyers aren’t too helpful. After a few days we all get used to them and they don’t trigger any sort of reaction on our part. We simply automatically tune them out.
As someone who can be pretty absentminded at times, this concerns me. I wanted a way to help ensure that I wouldn’t one day have a break in my routine and be so lost in though that I forgot the baby in the car. So this is the solution I rigged up.
Pretty amazing… Isn’t it?
Well, maybe not, but it does work. When the baby goes in the car seat I take the colored toy and put it on the dashboard. When I take the baby out, I put the toy back in his seat.
The fact that the toy blocks the seat and I can’t put the baby in until the toy is removed helps ensure that I don’t forget to put it on the dashboard.
Why is this better then the radio ads and the flyers around town? It’s simple. The ads play even when my baby is not in the car. And so hearing the ad is not linked to ‘baby in car’. On the other hand, seeing the toy on the dashboard only happens when the baby is in the car. And so it becomes linked to the idea that the baby is there.
Now this system isn’t perfect. Sometimes I forget and leave the toy on the dashboard after the baby comes out. That weakens the link between toy-baby. Also, one time I put the toy on the roof of the car while I was putting the baby in and I forgot it there! Luckily I heard it plop down on the trunk as soon as I started driving. I also have at times forgotten the toy in my hand as I take the baby out and end up bringing it into the house. In addition, if I forget the baby in the car, get out, and don’t realize what I have done, there is no reminder. The reminder is only there on the dashboard while I’m getting out of the car.
Luckily, most of these mistakes are self-correcting. As soon as I notice it on the dashboard when the baby isn’t there I simply put it back where it belongs. Perhaps a better system would be one of those snap bracelets (from the 90’s) that I could snap onto my arm when the baby went in and put it back when the baby comes out. Using that I wouldn’t forget it on the roof, and if I did forget the baby in the car, the reminder would come with me and perhaps alert me to go back to the car before it was too late.
While this post is about babies in cars in the summer, it’s really about more than that. It’s about thinking of simple ways to hack your environment so that important things become built in. ‘Focus more’ or ‘try harder’ really doesn’t work too well in real life, elegant and simple environment changes will often give you a far greater rate of return.
JYK
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