Would you post bail for her ?

Some might see this arrest as exclusively a child neglect issue, which, I will confess, was my first instinct. But I would urge you to consider how this story underscores the desperate situations parents are forced into in this country, either by poverty, lack of affordable housing, single parenthood or some combination of the three. Not everyone can afford a babysitter, daycare or a nanny; America really is a nation of latchkey kids (or in this case, babies) being left by themselves while Mom or Dad work. There are larger issues at play here: between the cost of childcare in this country and the cost of housing, a lot of parents who want to work have to make difficult choices regarding their kids. And be honest: Shanesha Taylor certainly isn’t the only single parent who has left young children by themselves while she was trying to put food on the table. But Shanesha was doubly unfortunate enough to be homeless, so the young children were left alone in public, in her car, and she was caught. It’s a sucky situation all-around.

Poverty is the problem here; poverty is what led to Taylor’s criminal behavior. We shouldn’t judge Shanesha Taylor so harshly for not having any resources she could rely on. The types of punishment the government is pursuing — taking her kids away from her or putting her in jail — don’t address that lack of resources. Punishing her could actually strip her of even more future resources. Obviously I don’t think that babies should be left alone inside hot cars, but we need to have empathy for the complexities of this situation.

Here’s hoping the Maricopa County attorneys drop the charges against Shanesha Taylor and this case is used to draw further attention to the systematic issues that led to her decision-making in the first place.