Expatica's resident blogger R.W. Dooley grapples with the situation of a possibly abandoned child.

 I hope this isn’t a German thing – I don’t think it is – I know the Germans are relaxed about a great many things like smoking, co-ed nudity in the sauna, public drunkenness and driving very, very fast, but today I saw something I’ve not seen before and it bothers me, enough to take the space here that I normally devote to more positive subjects, to delve a bit into the unforgivably negligent.

I don’t think there is a sober parent in Europe who isn’t aware of the tragic story of Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who was abducted from a Portuguese holiday apartment while her parents dined in a nearby restaurant. My heart aches for them, but leaving Madeline and her twin two-year-old siblings alone in that apartment is something Mr. and Mrs. McCann will never forgive themselves for no matter how the story of their daughter finally turns out.

Flash forward to this afternoon in Cologne, HH and I are coming home from Kindergarten and have stopped off at a local video store. As we are dismounting our bike I couldn’t help but notice two thirty-something blonde women exiting a very poorly parked station wagon, the rear-end of which was protruding far too far into the street.

But it wasn’t the lazy parking habits of this couple that blew my mind, it was the fact that they left a sleeping infant strapped in her child seat in the back seat of the car. They took a quick guilty glance in my direction as they proceeded to walk away. I was flabbergasted and stood there with HH for about ten minutes, hoping they would turn around and walk back, at least one of them, but no. I looked all over for a cop but there is never a cop around when you need one. That is something that remains constant be it Cologne or Manhattan.

We rode around the block to the Post Office and did some business and I passed by the station wagon again just to check in and there was the child still strapped into the seat, all alone. We rode on to a nearby park where HH and I had an ice cream, actually he had an ice cream and I had a coffee.

When we were finished we happened to catch a glimpse of a friend as she was turning the corner. She happens to be one of HH’s favorite humans so we took off on the bike and eventually caught up with her about a block from the location of the abandoned child. I almost hesitated to look in the direction of the car but I did and there it was, still jutting out into the traffic lane with a small helpless child strapped into the back seat.

So I ask you: Is this just a difference in cultures or were these two ladies (and I hesitate to use the word in this context) just negligent? Is this sort of behavior normal in Germany? Europe? Should I have intervened? Called the police? Stayed at the car until they returned and delivered scornful looks? What would you have done?

Read R. W. Dooley's full blog at http://germandiary.blogspot.com/

Published 15 June 2007

Copyright R.W. Dooley 2007

Subject: 'The New Old World', R.W. Dooley, expat in Cologne, living in Germany