TIL You can leagally drop your baby off at the fire station in all 50 states

https://lemmy.zip/post/59729703

TIL You can leagally drop your baby off at the fire station in all 50 states - Lemmy.zip

Pretty wild! All states give you at least 30 days to dump your baby, no strings attached. Some states give you 60 days! I feel like more people should know about this! It seems like a highly under utilized ability.

I feel like this woold lead to confusion amongst firemen. Like they go to pull out of the firehouse to respond to a fire, but they have to stop before they start because a random baby is just there for no reason.

I could be wrong, but I doubt most firefighters even know the proceedure for “Baby randomly dropped off without a name”.

My first instinct would be to call child services. Like what else would you do?

I feel like if we know about this, they would too. Or at least a supervisor.
Yeah it’s not an unknown thing in the states, there are companies centered around preparing for such www.shbb.org
Safe Haven Baby Boxes

Safe Haven Baby Boxes
I’d wager most of them know the first steps of the procedure. It’s likely a story that gets passed around a lot, even if it’s a rare occurrence. Also, every firefighter I’ve known is borderline OCD with keeping the station clean. I doubt that baby would be outside for long before they noticed.

FYI when firefighters leave on call it’s not like ALL of them leave. a team leaves.

there’s still people and trainees left behind that can handle things back at the station.

I think most fire departments are volunteer meaning that the stations are vacant unless there’s an active call.

Husband in fire/EMS.

That’s a good point that they exist, but a better way to quantify their prevalence is probably by population served. Even if the majority of fire departments are like that (if…) they would be in the most rural areas with little population. I would think most people live in areas densely populated enough to have an always-staffed fire station.
You would be correct per capita but not geographically! Volunteer/neighborhood fire departments are pretty common outside of major cities, and sometimes supplement professional services within them. They give people a direct way to serve their community and often serve double duty as event centers for birthdays, wedding receptions, potlatch, etc. Huge fan, consider volunteering :)

I thought generally even volunteer FDs had a team on shift- the one in the small town i used to live in did at least. I worked with a guy for a while who couldnt work certain shifts because they were his volunteer FD shifts.

Usually he did overnights and would just sleep over at the station 3 nights a week, went with him several times to hang out and play poker, although there was a hard no beer in the station.

Sometimes he was just ‘on call’ though, and would even come to work, with the stipulation of “i can work that shift, but my radio has to stay on me at all times, and I will just be disappearing worhout warning if I get the call.”

Departments vary. The ones near me are full time paid if you have to be at the station on shift. But there are only a handful of those.

Nah they’re made aware.

I mean, I guess a state could’ve passed the law, saying “hey, leave newborns at fire stations” and not informed the fire house, but it seems far more likely that they are informed.

But States either have designated boxes, or you hand the child over to them directly. You don’t just leave it in front of the firehouse door.

Yeah, I think my state of NC requires there to be a designated baby receiver on call at all times just in case someone pulls up with one that they need to get rid of.
I think you have to be trained to become a fireman.

Dropping babies at fire stations is a trend way older than any firefighter currently alive. They all know what the intent is if they find an unattended baby.

Some of them might take a bit before they realize it’s actually serious though.

Nebraska had no age limit for a bit. Guy dropped off 9 of his 10 kids(1 was 18) cause he felt overwhelmed after his wife died a year earlier.
How a law meant to curb infanticide was used to abandon teens | CBC Radio

With good intentions, Nebraska passed its Safe Haven Law in 2008 without an age restriction. Many didn't expect older children would be dropped off.

CBC
Wtf! That is insane 🤣 good read!

“I think there’s a misperception that we just inadvertently left an age cap out. But the reality was we wanted to save lives of older kids who might be at risk,” said Amanda McGill Johnson, a Nebraska state senator at the time.

That actually kind of makes sense? I mean, dropping off teens is excessive, but maybe it highlights an issue? Overwhelmed parents of teenagers isn’t something I had on my list of people that need more help, at least.

That is surprisingly kind for a Nebraskan legislator. Isn’t NE one of the states where they’d rather let women die than abort a fetus?
No, they’d rather let the mother die and get a free child prostitute out of it than to abort a fetus.
I guess it highlights why there should be no age limit… the response to introduce an age limit of 30 days certainly is not the right one.
I’m more concerned how he had ten kids and then felt overwhelmed when his wife left him. Like what the fuck?!
Because he didn’t do Jack raising them probably
Or doubling the responsibilities was too much.
If doubling was to much, it would have been enough to “only” drop 4-5

As long as we are doing hypothetical, he may have been working long hours to pay for all the costs while she was stay at home. When she died, working all the time and trying to care for kids and grieving is going to be massively stressful. Bot to mention the aunt for 7 of the kids decided to have a custody battle so lots and lots of possible things leading to being overwhelmed.

But you clearly assume he is a deadbeat because he’s a man. Have fun with that.

What has him being a man to do with all that

Because he didn’t do Jack raising them probably

Would you have assumed the sameblack of parenting if the father had died and the mother dropped off the kids?

I don’t think there is enough background story to think the mother would have been a much better parent, giving up ALL children
The fact that you can claim you need more information if it was a gender reversal, is exactly what they were pointing out.
Double it and pass it to the next person
Grieving for a partner definitely doesn’t make it easier to raise your children?!

And I’ve not met many men with 10 kids who are super into doing the whole “dividing the labor of parenting evenly” thing, and I went to catholic schools, I knew some big families. And even if he had been the type to do that, you aren’t winding up being the breadwinner for a family with 10 kids and having both low stress finances and a low stress job. So adding in lots of extra home duties and possibly reduced financial capabilities and mourning will probably wreck you.

That said, I’ve never met a family that large where the parents kept actually parenting beyond number 3 or 4. Some of the most horrifically parentified people I ever met were middle daughters of large families. Also the kids are struggling too, and each of them is likely to have taken some lasting psychic damage from being abandoned by their dad, even temporarily, shortly after their mom died.

Died, not left.

And likely yeah, someone would get overwhelmed doing two peoples’ jobs.

Yeah, but when I drop a teenager off at the fire station, they just bring her back home and tell me I can’t do that because it’s considered “child abandonment.”

Have you tried screaming “back back no trade back no trade back” when you drop them?

Sorry you missed the easy return window!

Shoulda been in Nebraska smh
That’s were you messed up. Teenagers are supposed to drop themselves off at the fire station. For older kids they are called “Safe Places” and require them to do all the work.

Most fire stations in the US have at least one person trained as a paramedic/EMT and in many places all of them have at least some medical training. Because in a lot of places fire trucks arrive, there’s people who need immediate medical help.

So they have the basic skills to keep a newborn baby alive until they can get it to a hospital. And if it’s older and healthy, they can just play with it and feed it and clean it as needed until Child Services arrives or it grows up and joins the crew.

or it grows up and joins the crew.

😳

Well, where did you think new firefighters come from?
Defeated fires?
See, when mommy fire and daddy fire are left alone long enough and it warm and cozy…
The larger older firefighters split into two new younger firefighters.
Fascinatingly the fire is an important part of their reproductive cycle. When a firefighter dies in combat, the heat makes their body spread seeds far and wide. After roughly a year, a new crop will be growing from the ashes.
The children yearn for the fires
Part of the truck, part of the crew!
In the event that this situation arises, hopefully the mother knows someone is at the station. There are plenty of empty stations that are used by volunteer departments.

Yes as a city dweller I take it for granted that my taxes pay for a professional fire-and-rescue service.

Other Safe Haven locations are hospitals, which makes sense, and some police stations (although I can’t imagine a worse place to leave a baby!)

Is there an age limit? Cause I know a 15 year old the can have……the little shit.
TIL You can leagally drop your baby off at the fire station in all 50 states - Lemmy.wtf

Pretty wild! All states give you at least 30 days to dump your baby, no strings attached. Some states give you 60 days! I feel like more people should know about this! It seems like a highly under utilized ability.

That’s how rhey recruit new firefighters!
prime example of why harm reduction is necessary. these measures are based on how the world actually works, not how we wish it would.
Yeah my mom always brought that up when I got in trouble
*You don’t get it back
now you tell me?
But I just wanted to go shopping for a couple of hours!
Can I legally drop someone else’s baby off at the fire station?