Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Do you hide your car keys?

There's this story in the news about an 8-year-old boy who crashed his mom's car, killing his 6-year-old sister, when they went driving after the mom had put them both to bed.

I am amazed at how many people are jumping in and saying that she should not have had the car keys where the kids could get them. It would never occur to me that my kids (even at 10, much less 8 and 6) would go driving in the middle of the night just because the keys were on the counter. I don't know anyone who hides car keys from children on the off chance that they might steal the car and die.

Even teenagers -- if you have to hide the keys to keep them from taking your car when they've been told no, you have a bigger problem.

Am I crazy? Or, more to the point, am I wrong?

Um, no, you are not crazy or wrong. What a sad sad story.

I think you're correct.

Related question: do you hide your medicine cabinet keys from similarly-aged children? Our medicine cabinet key is kept on top of the cabinet, a relic of the days when that was definitely enough to keep drugs and young child separate. But now DS could certainly get and use the key if he wanted it, and I wonder if I should be doing something else with it. (But what? If I kept it on my keyring this wouldn't help unless I hid that, just as for the car case.) Having been a depressed teen, though, I think there's something to be said for better control, and would like to know what other people do.

Well, it's the internet, and trolls will troll.


I cannot answer the first question without more information, but I can answer the second with an emphatic: NO.

Whaaaat? No, I do not hide my car keys. Also, the medicine cabinet is accessible to the kids at this point. When they hit the preteen years, my painkillers (I have migraines) and anything else that seems questionable will be locked up.

My kids used to hide my car keys from me.

When he was 1, my eldest (now 13) flushed my keys. Of course, I didn't know what had happened to them. Then one day when he was 2, my neighbor rang our bell and had a very odd look on her face when I answered the door. She asked "if I'd lost some keys." Turned out they made their way to her pipes and eventually blocked them. Oh. That's why the Roto-Rooter truck has been outside all morning.

We're remodeling our kitchen, and the workers found my other lost car keys about a month ago in the back of the tea towel cabinet. They had been gone for ~7 years this time. I suspect my daughter (now 9).

These days, they just take my office supplies and hide them. Has anyone seen my scissors?

Ha! That's one way to make sure your kids don't take the car -- hide the keys in your neighbor's sewer pipes.

I haven't seen your scissors, or mine, or any working pens, pencils with lead, highlighters, markers, glue sticks (just searched the house for those last night), rechargeable batteries, flashlights with said batteries, or my sanity.

I don't even have a medicine cabinet, much less a key for one -- we have to keep all that stuff under the sink, and the child locks have been off for at least a couple of years (given that DD is 7, but I'm lazy).

I do hide my purse when my son has friends spending the night, but that's because one of them took some money from me a few years ago when we took him to state for DI. I don't tempt fate (or kids) with money anymore, but I really don't believe even he would steal my car. After the trouble he was in when he got home from DI, I don't think he would get near my money again, either, but there's no sense taking chances.

A guy in the story comments says I'm an idiot and it's just like leaving a loaded gun where the kids can get it. Umm, no, not really. Kids will pick up a gun. They are far less likely to steal a car, even if they pick up the keys. I wonder if he locks up the kitchen knives at night, and locks the bathroom so nobody can drown in the bathtub? Does he sleep in front of the door to make sure nobody leaves the house?

Insanity, pure insanity.

This is one of those things where since something horrible happened, the parent must be stupid or negligent.

Now run the story about teenagers lacking the independence they need to be successful at college and the same commenters will blast parents for being too protective and not letting their kids learn from mistakes.

Where the heck are these people even putting their car keys? In the special car key safe that we all have? Please.

Hey Nautigal, if your sanity is still missing looks like KJP has some to spare