'AITA? I saw a child left alone in the car and offered him water.'

"AITA? I saw a child left alone in the car and offered him water..."

I was at a grocery store and saw that someone had left their child in the car. He was young maybe 4, strapped in his car seat just calm. It was a bit over 80 degrees outside and the windows of the turned off car were down but it still just didn’t sit right with me.

I’ve seen so much news coverage of children being left in hot cars and losing their lives while the parents gallivant at whatever errand was so important their child couldn’t be a part of that I couldn’t just walk away.

I grew up being left in the car from time to time and I’m fine so I really didn’t want to call the police and make a big stink out of it but for the most part I figured whoever brought the child there would know not to take too long inside.

I had just purchased a cold water bottle and hadn’t opened it so I went to one of the rolled down windows and handed it to the child before leaving. I hoped if he wouldn’t drink the water that maybe he’d hold the bottle against himself to stay cool since there wasn’t any wind blowing and just dry humid air around.

I told my mom I gave the kid the water and she blew up at me saying that I’m teaching him to accept things from strangers and am doing more harm than good. I also spoke to my aunt and she immediately said I should have called the police and went further than just handing a water bottle. AITA?

Here's what people had to say to OP:

memyselfandi78 said:

Regardless of how hot it is outside, if a child is young enough to have to be strapped into a car seat, they're too young to be left alone.

Beginning-Row5959 said:

NTA - it was a kind gesture. But you also should have called police. The child protection system is flawed but a parent who thinks it's safe to leave a child in a car on an 80 degree day is showing dangerously poor judgement.

iamacannibal said:

NTA but you 100% should have called the police. Even with the windows down the car will be very hot inside and a 4 year old probably can’t get themselves out of those car seats. Also leaving a 4 year old is insane.

Takeabreath_andgo said:

I hope that freaked out the parent when they got back and kid had some random water bottle and they don’t know where it came from. Enough not to do it again.

MamaLlama629 said:

YTA for not calling the cops.

Cripps-Taxidermy said:

Yta and your mother was right.