Car Manufacturers and Kids

Nate and I recently learned that car manufacturers don't necessarily have children in mind when developing their latest and greatest car gadgetry. Earlier this week Nate had rented a Suburban for an out of town trip. Since he'd just gotten back from an out of town trip Abby and I were hanging out near the SUV soaking up as much "Nate time" as we could get before he took off again. Abby's had a thing for playing in cars lately so I tossed her into the driver's seat and let her 'drive'. Nate finished packing up his stuff and came to talk to me on the passenger's side of the car. After saying his good-byes to me he, as he was closing the passenger door, made a quip about how funny it would be if the SUV had auto locks when all the doors were shut. Ha ha. Right.

Suddenly we looked at each other and realized that this car very well could be like that! Sure enough, after checking all four doors and the back we realized we'd locked Abby in the car! Thankfully the car was running and the air conditioning was on so we didn't have to worry about her getting too hot inside. At this moment I panicked and started excitedly exclaiming that we needed to get a locksmith out here STAT. Added into the confusion of the moment was that Nate needed to be leaving to pick up the rest of his co-workers for their trip and any delay would be a big delay for everyone. I ran inside, as my phone was the only available one, and started cursing out the Internet as Google couldn't give me a simple answer for "24 hour locksmith Pasco, WA". I actually wished we had kept a copy of the phone book that was tossed on our door a few months ago. Never did I think that a hard copy page would be needed over the entire world wide web. Just as I was starting to move from panicked into freaked out I heard Nate yelling my name.

I came outside to find Nate holding Abby who was looking like she was befuddled by all the commotion. After grabbing her in my arms for some big hugs Nate explained that our daughter is a master at working buttons. While the multiple number of buttons on the driver's side had stumped her (she kept locking the door and putting the window up) the passenger side buttons were right up her alley. She found the window down button on her first try and created her own freedom. Our adventure was over in less than five minutes.

This is another example of how car manufacturers don't have children in mind when they create cars. No car should automatically lock just because the car is running and all doors are closed. I mean, this couldn't possibly be OUR fault so it must be theirs, right? :-) I do think I'll add "key less entry" onto my wish list for our next vehicle, whenever that may be.