When searching for a non-fiction essay to write about, I decided to look in a list of best essays of 2014, assuming I would find some good ones that way. I was right; I came across the #1 essay of 2014, called The day I left my son in the car by Kim Brooks. From the start I thought I would be reading about a helpless mother's horror story (something I wasn't very excited to read about), but I figured if it was ranked the #1 personal essay for that year, it must be pretty good.
Brooks is just a regular mom with two small children and not enough hours in the day. When the story of the essay took place, she had two hours to run to the store, wake up, dress and feed her daughter, and get her entire family to the airport, through security and onto a plane within two hours. (Believe me, reading that sentence stressed me out too.) Her sons headphones for the plane broke and he insisted on coming to the store with her to get new ones. Upon arriving, he refused to get out the car. Because the mother was so stretched for time she made the split-second decision to leave him in the car for 5 minutes. It was 50 degrees and overcast, so she didn't seem much harm in doing so. However, she couldn't have been more wrong.
Her husband was waiting for the family at baggage claim, and all he said to greet them was "Call you mother...". As it turns out, someone had called the police and reported the license plate because her son was left in the car, and Brooks ended up getting to cross 'being criminally charged' off of her bucket list.
Throughout the story, the author was using her credibility as a mother and the art of suspense to convey her purpose. She wanted to both educate her audience about the true consequences of leaving a child in a car unattended, as well as scare them into staying away from doing so. In my opinion, I think Brooks did so successfully because even though I have no children (and I don't really ever plan to) this essay instilled a sort of 'healthy dose' of paranoia in me so that I'll never do this.
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