Toddlers drown in pond while babysitter naps

[SewingDeb]

The Crime Library article says it was little Maggie's mother (Renea) who allowed her the 20 minute nap after arriving with Maggie to see if Brittany would babysit. When she arrived, she found Brittany asleep and Jenna crying.

Not sure where Jenna's parents were by that time.

Would you leave your child there?

 

[Dena]

The Crime Library article says it was little Maggie's mother (Renea) who allowed her the 20 minute nap after arriving with Maggie to see if Brittany would babysit. When she arrived, she found Brittany asleep and Jenna crying.

Not sure where Jenna's parents were by that time.

Would you leave your child there?

I wonder if maybe Brittany is on Summer vacation and watching the girls is like her Summer job and Jenna's parents can keep Jenna out of daycare then. Save some money weekly and give it to Brittany instead. So maybe this was a daily occurrence for Brittany and the parents were in a hurry to get off to work and did not notice anything wrong. Brittany couldn't admit being drunk to Maggie's mother because she would get in trouble by her own (step) parents.
If I were Maggie's mother, I would be calling Jenna's parents and letting them know what happened.

Just trying to make sense of all this.

Have I ever been hungover watching my son? You bet, but never drunk. And I have fallen asleep early on a Saturday morning when my son has me up at 5:30 am. Throw on some Elmo and make a bowl of cereal and lay on the couch. Don't get me wrong, this is not something I do all the time, maybe once or twice ever, but I have done it. Gates are up and doors are locked and my son has nowhere to go.
Now if you're drunk and can barely stay awake and can't think straight, I can't imagine protection of the children (for a 19 year old) is your first thought. To rationally think, "ok, I'm a little drunk, what can I do to ensure these children are safe" is obviously not something she did.
I am trying so hard to put myself in her shoes, but her acts were very selfish. That should've been one day she should've called in to "work", regardless of the consequences.

As for the parents...
When my son was at his last home daycare, there were many mornings where I would have to call his provider and wake her up. She worked nights, so when I dropped my son off at 6:45am, she would sometimes still be sleeping. I honestly wouldn't know the difference between just tired and hungover. If Brittany watching the kids was a daily thing, they might not have thought anything bad would happen.
However, I would not have told my daycare provider to take a half hour nap before I left, that's a red flag right there.
I know I'm ranting, just trying to piece it all together.

 

[SewingDeb]

The babysitter was drunk. How can anyone say "poor girl"? She was DRUNK.

Exactly. She is responsible for her own actions at age 19 and in college. There's plenty of blame to go around in this case and I don't think she should be let off the hook or felt sorry for.

 

[nanandjim]

The Crime Library article says it was little Maggie's mother (Renea) who allowed her the 20 minute nap after arriving with Maggie to see if Brittany would babysit. When she arrived, she found Brittany asleep and Jenna crying.

Not sure where Jenna's parents were by that time.

Would you leave your child there?

My gut would tell me not to leave my child. Apparently, this child's mother went against her gut for some reason. I wonder if Renea (the child's mother) left the garage door open when she left.

 

[SewingDeb]

I hope wherever Renea was going that morning was worth leaving her precious child at that home.

Good question about the garage door...that could explain a lot.

 

[southcitymom]

What a devastating event for everyone - including the drunk babysitter. My prayers to the families for growth and healing.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

I wouldn't leave my kids with someone with bad morals. A girl who drinks underage doesn't have the kind of morals that I want around my children.

 

[philamena]

I wouldn't leave my kids with someone with bad morals. A girl who drinks underage doesn't have the kind of morals that I want around my children.

You got that right.

 

[southcitymom]

I wouldn't leave my kids with someone with bad morals. A girl who drinks underage doesn't have the kind of morals that I want around my children.

I wonder if the mother knew she had been drinking when she showed up that morning. Or knew she drank at all, for that matter.

The kids were too young to be aware of any drinking habits or morals associated with drinking habits with the babysitter - but the parents of the stepsister might have had some idea.

 

[pedinurse]

i have to think that they knew if she had been out all night.

 

[chicoliving]

A 20-year-old baby sitter whose half sister and another toddler drowned while the woman slept after a night of partying was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail.

Brittany Steward was sentenced to the Erie County Prison term after pleading guilty Tuesday to two counts of endangering the welfare of children.

Prosecutors dropped involuntary manslaughter and other charges in exchange for her guilty plea. Steward could been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for each of the manslaughter charges alone.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,383082,00.html

 

[MistyGirl]

A 20-year-old baby sitter whose half sister and another toddler drowned while the woman slept after a night of partying was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in jail.

Brittany Steward was sentenced to the Erie County Prison term after pleading guilty Tuesday to two counts of endangering the welfare of children.

Prosecutors dropped involuntary manslaughter and other charges in exchange for her guilty plea. Steward could been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for each of the manslaughter charges alone.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,383082,00.html

WOW that's ALL she got?!?!?!?!?!? I am floored, she sent a text message at 7:00am that morning saying she was done drinking.............

"Around 7 a.m., Steward text-messaged a friend, "OK im finally done drinking and im rocked lol," police said. A few hours later, the children were dead."

I am sorry but under those cirumstances she should have been charged with manslaughter!!!!! She was still drinking at 7:00am when she knew she had to babysit and those poor babies were dead with in a few hours!!!!:furious::furious:

 

[Jeana (DP)]

WOW that's ALL she got?!?!?!?!?!? I am floored, she sent a text message at 7:00am that morning saying she was done drinking.............

"Around 7 a.m., Steward text-messaged a friend, "OK im finally done drinking and im rocked lol," police said. A few hours later, the children were dead."

I am sorry but under those cirumstances she should have been charged with manslaughter!!!!! She was still drinking at 7:00am when she knew she had to babysit and those poor babies were dead with in a few hours!!!!:furious::furious:

I agree.

 

[TheShadow]

So many people don't even think about toddllers escaping the house while they are asleep/distracted. It happens all the time, it's just that most times nothing bad happens. I recall a time when I awoke from a nap and found my across the street neighbor's toddler asleep in my living room. I took him back across the street and found dad in the backyard mowing. The front door was baby-locked but the boy had gone out through the garage to the street.

 

[txsvicki]

I walked into my utility room some years back just as the little boy next door was getting out of my dryer. He had been playing hide n seek and had gone over the fence and got into my house. My kids weren't even outside.

 

[Grainne Dhu]

I just watched a bit of Nancy Grace and they were talking about this. I love NG, but tonight she was really out there. She was really on a roll about how this babysitter should be held accountable. She went on and on about the sitter "napping" and just cut the sitter no slack.

I'm old enough to remember when mothers were told to sleep whenever their babies/toddlers slept. Chasing after toddlers is exhausting for caretakers (if that energy could be bottled, there would be no energy crisis!) and the safest time to rest is when the babies/toddlers are asleep.

That poor family will never be the same, not the parents, not the babysitter (who was a relative). I hope they won't be further traumatised by having this 18 year old dragged through court.

 

[Grainne Dhu]

Everyone always remembers to put dummy plugs in outlets when child-proofing thier homes, but so many people don't think about the doors leading out of the house.

Before I met my husband, he was a single parent with full custody of his son. When my stepson was two years old, they were napping together. My stepson woke up, got out of bed without waking up his dad and apparently decided to go get some ice cream (a little stand three blocks away).

My stepson was too short to reach the doorknob but my husband had already put a bolt on the door at adult shoulder height and he always used it. My stepson got out of the house by dragging a chair over, standing on the chair, undoing the shoulder high bolt, opening the regular deadbolt, then moving the chair back away from the door so he could turn the knob and get out. My husband never dreamed that he knew how to do that! He (my stepson) had never done anything like that before.

My husband woke up, realised his son was gone, called the police. Somehow his son managed to cross two moderately busy streets without anyone noticing and was discovered at the ice cream shop. The ice cream shop recognised him but didn't know how to get hold of his father, so they called the police.

My husband says that was the longest half hour of his life. The police came immediately, bunches and bunches of them and fanned out all over the neighbourhood.

SAFETY NOTE: My husband was so freaked out that when he had his son back, he mentioned to a police officer that he was going to put a double deadbolt lock on the door (one that requires a key to open from both sides). The police officer advised him not to because if they ever had a fire, the delay to open the double deadbolt could be the difference between escaping and dying of smoke inhalation.

The police advised my husband that it would be safer to install a door chime that would sound whenever the door was opened. This was over 25 years ago, so there may be better technology now. Just don't do the double deadbolt--fireman really hate to find dead people.

 

[Amraann]

We do have the double keyed deadbolts and our autistic son can still manage to sneak out of the house.

I have some issue with this women being out partying all night and drinking until 7 am then falling asleep.
And if she lived at the house ... how did the parents not know this? Why did they leave their babies with her?

 

[Grainne Dhu]

We do have the double keyed deadbolts and our autistic son can still manage to sneak out of the house.

That is a really tough situation.

There are many considerations that go into safety precautions. I do understand the caution about double keyed deadbolts but sometimes you've gotta do what you've got to do with the child you have.

I have some issue with this women being out partying all night and drinking until 7 am then falling asleep.
And if she lived at the house ... how did the parents not know this? Why did they leave their babies with her?

I wrote my first post before I read the posts that revealed she'd been drinking.

Did the mother need to get to work? She may have felt an economic push to hope that everything would be okay. Or she may have been oblivious--I have a fairly sensitive sense of smell and can often smell alcohol on people after they've had a single drink but a friend of mine seems practically "noseblind" to me--someone could pour a bottle of Scotch over themselves and she would never smell it.

The babysitter made a stupid mistake and that whole family is paying for it. What a devastating outcome to a relatively common thing.

 

[jubie]

Two dead children and that's all she's getting? She should plead guilty AND get a huge sentence.