Have you heard the story yet of Destiny Flores? She’s the little 14 month girl found sitting in the middle of a busy street last year, but her story is just now gaining National headlines. Here is the story from the Today Show yesterday:
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At first, the story seems horrifying. I mean, really. It IS horrifying. A little baby sitting alone in the middle of the street. Thank GOD this bus driver was paying attention!
But now the mother is fighting for all three of her children…Child Protective Services wants to take them away.
What do you think?
According to the mother, Catherine Gonzalez, “it was an accident.” Apparently a latch on their screen door wasn’t latched properly.
Do you think this “accident” could happen to you??
Oh, hell yes it could!
I don’t think I ever blogged about it. But way back when my twins were just 2ish or so, they got out. Into the street. Alone.
My husband was home “watching” them. They were at that stage of opening the door and exploring the world around them. Bob was in another room and didn’t even know they were gone. We also have a completely fenced property with a gate across the driveway. Added security. So when Bob came back into the living room and realized they were out…he didn’t panic. I mean…the gate’s closed…right?
uumm..Nope.
Someone had left without closing the gate. Two little toddlers were toddling around in the middle of a very busy, curvy street. By the time my husband hauled his butt to the road, cars were stopped and honking at these two little explorers who were oblivious to the peril they were in.
Horrifying! Right??
My husband called me on the phone to tell me what happened. I was pissed! To say the very least… I was so mad that my husband could be so incompetent and put our babies in danger like that.
But you know what? Shit happens!
We learned from that day and installed a latch at the very top of our door so that they could not reach it. We put a lock on the gate and made rules with my parents (who live on the same property) that the gate would always be closed. No exceptions. And this horrifying accident never happened again.
Now I don’t know about other circumstances happening with Catherine Gonzalez and her fight for Destiny and her sisters. It sounded like from her Today Show interview that there was more happening than just this one incident. But if this one incident is enough to take her kids away, then that’s not fair. Parents make mistakes. People learn from those mistakes. These things happen to the very best of parents (like me!). Children are crafty little buggars! I say we just give the bus driver a medal for paying attention and saving that little girls life and let the family get on with their lives. They should not be made to feel worse than they already do. Trust me.
Welcome to OhRheally?, My name is Rhea and I share stories of life raising 3 sons, my experiences as a (recently retired) 
I know my 2 year old figured out how to get the screen door opened when it was locked. He got the door open while I was in the bathroom and ran out into the yard. Fortunately, the neighbor across the street saw him and asked him sternly if he was supposed to be outside without Mommy. He ran back in. We installed a lock at the top of the door. I thank God my neighbor was outside! Yep, it can happen to anyone. As for the custody battle for Destiny Flores… if the door incident was the only incident, then no, she shouldn’t be fighting for her kids. If, however, there is an ongoing issue, then maybe it should be examined.
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I do believe that accidents happen too! Luckily we were smart and put an alarm system on our house that tells us when the doors on the house are opened. We also have a chain on the front door which allows my little guy from escaping……
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Ugh how scary. My oldest was an escape artist when she was younger. We literally had to put like 50 locks on each door amongst other things. We even slept with our heads against the door (I worked nights) so that if she did try to get out, she would wake us by bashing our heads. It can happen to anyone!
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I don’t know what else is going on with that family but that kind of thing CAN happen to ANYBODY. I don’t know how many times Aidan left the house and crossed the street to the mailbox when he was 1 and 2 and 3. Even when we put a lock up top he would use his baseball bat to open it. We finally had to put a deadbolt up there and install an alarm. Luckily our street was not busy but anything could have happened in that 60 seconds he was out there.
Yes, stuff like that can accidentally happen. I hope that the children are not being taken away because of one unawareness by a parent that a child could get out of a door that they didn’t realize the child could accomplish at such an age or size. Yet, I’m sure there is more going on than we realize here. Anyways, one would hope that Social Services wouldn’t remove the children for this one problem. Social Services would be better spending their money on providing the parent with door alarming systems, so that when the door is opened an alarm goes off, as well as latch systems to install higher up out of children’s reach to keep the doors secured. If however they deem after one accidental problem, though a major one in this case, to remove the children they should realize they will be spending alot more money and do a lot more damage to the children’s since of security by placing them in foster care. Foster care is warranted if they have done their research and found that child endangerment in this home is a common occurence or that the parents were not aware because of possible drug or alcohol use by said parent(s) at the time of the problem. It’s hard to form a true opinion on the subject since we were not there, nor do we know this family on a personal level and have seen how the children have been cared for. I think I’m going to leave this one up to the professionals who I only hope and pray are acting professionally and not emotionally in this case.
Just the other day my 2 yr old grandson stacked things up and climbed up and unlocked the door, he was out the door in a flash. Fortunately, I was right behind him. I live on a very busy street. He is very smart. The smarter our kids are, the craftier. It happens and it is the worst feeling in the world…along with other things like losing site of them in a store. We are human, just have to be smarter than 2 yr olds! and watch out for others, children are precious!
I agree that this can happen to anyone. Kids are a lot craftier than you think. Unless you tie yourself to the children and never fall asleep, they get into things no matter how hard you try to babyproof, etc.
All I know is… in the state of Oregon, children aren’t removed from their parents because of a one time accident. And DHS is VERY unwilling to do anything to separate families unless there is blatant, obvious issues.
I also have a Houdini child, he scares the wits out of me. So we have a dead bolt lock at the top of our door to keep him from getting out at night when we’re not watching his every move.
When I was about 3 years old my parents took me to a backyard picnic with friends. I made friends with their 3 year old. Everyone assumed someone else was watching the two well-behaved little girls.
Somewhere along the way I told the little girl that I had a “penny in my pocket.” She conveniently knew of a fountain we could go throw it in.
We left the party and headed down the street. That “street” was a major thoroughfare in Washington, DC. The fountain was outside of a large high school. We only had to cross 3 intersections to get there.
At some point someone realized we were missing, and they started off in search of us. My mother still turns white when she remembers seeing cars literally driving off the road into a hydrant, into a tree, and in a yard – all from dodging the little girls. She said they followed the destruction down the road, until they found us sitting beside the fountain not talking to a policeman.
After all, we weren’t allowed to talk to strangers.
When asked what we thought we were doing the answer was quite simple, “But Mommy, we held hands every time we crossed the street!”
Ergo, no rules were broken.
My youngest daughter is by far the most active, intelligent, and illusive little girl I’ve EVER seen. She can sneak off in an instant. She learned how to open the door as soon as she could reach it which was at about 17 months old. Of course, from that point we kept the door locked to keep her from opening it, but about 2 months later, she learned how to UNLOCK the door, which no one knew. We were sitting IN THE LIVING ROOM watching TV just like this family was and there was a KNOCK at the front door which was directly behind us. We opened the door to find our not even two year old daughter standing there. Just THINKING about it makes my heart skip a beat just considering what COULD have happened. I don’t even know how long she had been outside. I’m still not sure if she snuck out the front door and stood there or if she snuck out of the side door and walked around, but whichever it was, she actually CLOSED the door behind herself. Terrifying. But, yes it CAN happen to ANYONE. I am a VERY good mother and I keep a CLOSE watchful eye on my kids (my oldest is 10 and is not even allowed to leave the yard; none of my kids are even allowed to go visit friends so our house is the neighborhood hangout for all the children) but you just cannot have an eye on them 24 hours a day. You sit down to check email, go wash a load of clothes, prepare dinner… and ANYTHING can happen during those moments. We, of course, ran out to Lowe’s and bought $60 worth of door knobs and dead bolts (yes, we replaced the entire door knob and lock system on BOTH of those doors!) as well as child proofing things like door knob covers… and do you know within 3 weeks, my NOT EVEN TWO YEAR OLD DAUGHTER could turn the door knob WITH the cover on it? We now have to keep ALL the doors dead bolted at all times just to keep her inside. Parenting isn’t easy and unfortunately, accidents DO happen no matter how careful or prepared you may be.
Here is the problem folks: I live in SA, and am prevy to this event. She said she thought the kids were in the back watching TV. The video footage you all saw occured after midnight…..if what she said was true, what in the world were the kids doing up after midnight watching TV??? What does that say about the parents???
Hey Mike,
I have a friend who’s 2yo was recently up till after 1am! Sometimes little kids don’t sleep when you want them to. Schedules get messed up, illness, stress, anything can happen.
Now, as I mentioned in my post, I have no idea what other things could be going on, and if there are other parenting issues, then so be it. I just felt bad that her parenting was being attacked for something that has happened to lots of us.
Thanks for leaving a comment, I really appreciate it!