How many times have you left sleeping child in locked car?

Lawsuits are on my mind.

Sure, there's the one filed by Neighborhood Schools For Our Children against Indian Prairie Unit District 204 -- purportedly to secure a safe school site for the new Metea Valley High School.

But for this week, at least, I'll put that aside.

This week's lawsuit was filed by Treffly Coyne, the Tinley Park mom who was charged with child endangerment in December by Crestwood police after leaving her sleeping 2-year-old alone in a locked car just a few feet from Coyne.

I'm not sure whether I would have filed a lawsuit for false arrest and malicious prosecution if I were Coyne. But her situation is one I'm surprised I haven't heard more about -- maybe because my friends' kids spend a lot more time driving cars than sleeping in car seats.

But from the time I heard about Coyne's arrest for leaving her toddler in her car seat after locking her doors and activating the car alarm so she and her 8- and 9-year-old daughters could walk a few feet to drop money in a Salvation Army kettle, I've sympathized. I was happy to hear all charges were dropped against her a couple of weeks ago.

I know there were many times I left sleeping children in cars a few feet away during the years my kids were that age. Hopefully the statute of limitations will keep officers from my door when I confess that crime.

Maybe times have changed in the 13 or so years since my kids routinely fell asleep in car seats. But when my routine included a major thrill that any tiny person would take a nap and the idea of waking them was unthinkable -- I would have done what Coyne did without a second thought.

She could see the car the whole time she was away from it. The car was locked and the alarm was set. Though I've read a few far-fetched ideas of what could have happened in those couple of minutes -- including the suggestion someone could have crashed into the car -- that's part of life when you're a mom.

Some called her a child abuser. Please! If she is a child abuser, those words cease to have any meaning.

Apparently that label has been used because some feel she put her child at risk. At risk of what?

If a vehicle had crashed into the car where Coyne's child slept, why would that have been any different than if she had been at the wheel, waiting for the other two children, and someone crashed into her? Actually, with her out of the car perhaps that would have been better in that she'd be able to take care of her child if the toddler were injured instead of being injured herself as well.

The "what ifs" could go on forever.

What if the two children walking on the sidewalk had been hit by a runaway car from the parking lot? Then the child in the car seat would have been safer.

The whole incident could have been avoided, as Coyne asserts in her lawsuit, if the community service officer who saw the child alone in the car would have just spent a minute to ask Coyne what was going on.

In a Daily Herald story, Coyne's attorney notes the officers actually put Coyne's older children at risk by leaving them alone while they arrested their mother. At least the 2-year-old had been in a locked, observed car. Those officers were not even reprimanded and Coyne was arrested.

The lawsuit could have been avoided if the city had apologized to Coyne.

Now that we have all heard the story of Treffly Coyne, more children will be needlessly awakened for a one-minute errand -- running up to a friend's door to leave something on the doorstep or into a neighborhood dry cleaners to carry out some clothes.

Perhaps we shouldn't leave our sleeping children in our backyards or in one room when we're in another room -- even locked doors might not keep some harm from them.

I'd love to hear from readers on this one. I know in my years of raising three children, there were times I left kids sleeping in a buckled car seat in a locked car for a minute or two, only when I was sure I could see them and they were safe. Have you? Should you?