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Notes -
Personal anecdote on the topic. TL;DR-- there are "careful" people everywhere who like to tattle (or who are just very worried about everything), but our local authorities seem reasonable about parenting choices.
During COVID, my son was 6, my husband was working every day, and we lived in a small town. I had to make a Walmart run, so I went first thing in the morning, very early, before it got busy. Instead of masking up my sleepy 6 y.o. and making him follow me through the store for an hour or more, I left him in the car with his tablet. I didn't think this would be a problem because he wasn't an infant locked in a car seat; he was just a kid playing on his tablet. The tablet had wifi and he could message me on my phone--we texted some while I was shopping. The morning was neither hot nor cold; the car had manual windows and locks, so he could roll down a window or unlock the door without a problem. He understood that he was not to get out of the car except in an emergency, and that he was not to open the door to anyone at all. If anything questionable happened, he was to text me a single, specific letter and I would come out immediately.
I was scanning my groceries and checking out when I heard a policeman speaking with a Walmart supervisor. Apparently someone had seen my boy in the car and had called the police; the policeman was discussing the situation with the supervisor. He was saying, "The kid was fine--playing on his tablet. Said his mom was shopping. I don't know--I don't see anything wrong. I wouldn't bring a kid inside if I didn't have to." I interrupted and identified myself, explaining that I was in contact with him via messenger, etc. The policeman was very kind and positive, relieved to have confirmation that everything was good.
When I got to the car, I waved to another policeman who seemed to be watching at a distance and he gave me a thumbs-up. My son said they had knocked on the window and he had rolled it down enough to speak to them, and everything was fine. He wasn't worried at all. It's concerning that someone felt they should call the police when they saw a kid sitting in a car in a parking lot, but it's encouraging that our police had good sense.
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