[there4]

I don't see mention of parenting.

Imagine you’re in a hurry. Your child is tired and hungry, and you are too. You’ve just loaded the groceries into the trunk and finally gotten your child strapped into the car seat. You think for just a moment that you're done. But then you realize: you still need to return the shopping cart. You should have loaded the groceries, locked the car, gone back to the cart return and then carried your child back to the car to load them into their car seat.

Now you’re faced with a dilemma with three bad options — do you take your child back out of the car, leave them unattended for a moment, or abandon the cart and go home?

[cogman10]

I'm a parent with a child with profound autism. You leave your kid in the car for the 30 seconds it takes to return the cart. It's never been an issue and the kiddo is perfectly content waiting for a short period while I walk the cart back.

My god, people act like there's kidnappers at every grocery store just waiting for this one moment to abduct a child.

[tauchunfall]

I looks more this is about managing fears and worries. This is also close to helicopter parenting, i.e. parents who are "overattentive and overly fearful for their child, particularly outside the home".

I don't know, in 90s Germany my parents just let me wait in the car for a minute and there was only the radio I could listen to. In elementary school I just walked to school even in darkness. And in high school I walked 15 minutes to the bus. That was the time when some middle class parents started bringing their children to the bus with the car, but for most of the other children is was normal to just walk.

But yeah times change. My grand-parents walked 10 km by foot to school on the street on 6 days per week after war.

[cush]

> I don't see mention of parenting.

When I read this I thought you meant bad parents not teaching their kids to return their carts

> dilemma... do you...

What exactly is the risk of leaving the kid while you quickly return the cart?

[there4]

All I'm asking is that we give caregivers a little empathy and some grace. To your question - There's not much risk. Lock the car, return the cart.

But what I'm offering is that if I saw a parent leaving a cart, I wouldn't judge and assume that it's because of a glaring moral failing.

[cpburns2009]

It's not hard. Lock the car and return the cart. Your kid(s) will be fine unattended in the car for 20 seconds crying or not. If this really distresses you, park in the back by a cart corral.

[bombcar]

I’ve accidentally parked inside a larger cart corral - I thought it was a space between two.

Menards corrals are literally carports they sell in the store (and hence covered which is nice).

[id00]

I usually just leave them in the cart and we go and return it together. Or now as they became older - they push it themselves to the corrals (with me next to them of course).

Feels like a lazy justification

[there4]

> Feels like a lazy justification

I try to give people kindness and grace, even for small things. Maybe we can sometimes reframe a "lost cart" as something other than an act of laziness or aggression against society. Maybe it’s a sign someone was just having a hard moment.

When I take a stray cart back, sure, it could’ve been left by someone careless. But it also could’ve been left by someone overwhelmed. Maybe a parent, an exhausted worker, someone barely holding it together because of some struggle we'll never know.

Returning that cart might be a tiny act of kindness toward someone who needed it that day.

[johnnyanmac]

If you can't leave your kid unattneded for 30 seconds, I'd worry about bringing them in for an hour long shopping trip to begin with.

[scoofy]

It takes 30 seconds.

[idiotsecant]

Congratulations on being the subject of the thread.

[HDThoreaun]

imagine thinking returning your cart after putting your kid in the car is a bad option.