Maybe Don't Put Your Baby in the Hotel Safe?
LatestParents, I get it. There are plenty of reasons why you’d want to put your baby in a hotel safe. It’s where they tell you to put your valuables and, really, what’s more valuable than your baby? Or, hey, maybe you just want to see if your baby, tiny and cute, is tiny and cute enough to fit inside. Again, I understand the urge and am not here to judge you. That said, I’d like to—as your friend—suggest that maybe you don’t put your baby in the hotel safe. Not just this once, but ever.
I know, I know, sometimes things happen. Sometimes your baby gets into the hotel safe and—whoops—the door swings shut. Who among us hasn’t been in that position before? I mean, it JUST happened to a couple staying at a Howard Johnsons in Niagara Falls, Ontario and now they’re wanted by the law.
The CBC reports:
Police are searching for an American family whose infant ended up locked in a hotel safe in Niagara Falls, Ont.
The Niagara Regional Police Service said in a news release that the family, from the New York City borough of Brooklyn, was staying at the Howard Johnson Hotel by the Falls in Niagara Falls.
On Tuesday at around 10 a.m., the family notified hotel staff that their baby had been locked in a safe in the room and a maintenance worker was sent to free the infant. The baby was “alert and crying,” police said in a news release.
The family left the hotel before police could arrive, but according to Detective-Constable Amanda Sanders of Niagara regional police’s child abuse unit, they do not overwhelmingly suspect that the parents were being abusive.
“At this point we don’t know if it’s anything more than a preventable accident,” she says.
There’s some important language there: preventable accident. Preventable because, despite the temptation, it’s really easy and logical not to put your baby in a hotel safe. Why? Because, at worst, that safe could be airtight. Or, less harmfully (but still very embarrassing), you end up being the schmuck who has to go down to security, tell them you locked your baby in the hotel safe and have them look at you, like, “ugh, again?”
Parenting is hard and there are few easy choices. Do you breast or bottle feed? Do you do natural birth or a c-section? It’s a confusing world, but at least one thing is clear: Hotel safes are not for babies. Keep your baby out of the safe.
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