Increasingly, the mass media report on tragic incidents involving children. Their variety is enormous, ranging from accidents to criminal events. We may read or hear that somewhere in Poland, five-year-old Piotruś left home and did not return; that several-year-old Jaś was seriously injured in a road accident because he was unsupervised near a street; or that a four-year-old girl drowned in a nearby river. Or that seven-year-old Kacper took drugs he found somewhere. What these incidents have in common, however, is that at some point proper adult supervision was lacking.

Unfortunately, despite the repeated shocking stories, parents ignore the warnings and do not learn from other people’s mistakes. We believe that situations of this kind concern only dysfunctional families. Nothing could be further from the truth. Accidents involving children can happen anywhere. Here are examples from the past few days. In Słupsk, three-year-old Marcel suffocated in a washing machine while playing with his five-year-old sister. In one of Łódź’s housing estates, four-year-old Czarek fell from a sixth-floor window. Unfortunately, he could not be saved. The same was true of a three-year-old girl from Rybnik, who was left by her father in a car in the heat.

Every day in Poland, police officers intervene in situations where children’s lives and health are endangered by inadequate care. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of these cases involve drunk parents or guardians. In Olsztyn, a 31-year-old mother left her four children in the apartment and “popped over to a friend for a moment.” Her blood-alcohol level was close to one per mille. In Podkarpacie, police officers passing through one of the towns noticed a small boy walking alone along the pavement. He was lightly dressed, soaked and crying. As it turned out, the two-year-old was 300 metres from his home, where his parents were drunk. They had not even noticed that the child had left. Wałbrzych police officers helped a one-and-a-half-year-old girl return home after she was found unsupervised on one of the busy streets. In this case, too, the parents had not realised that the child was missing. Both were drunk.

An intoxicated parent is someone who loses touch with reality, reacts more slowly and is unable to concentrate. They then forget their responsibilities, and the child ceases to be the most important thing. Yet a small child requires immense attention, careful supervision and constant monitoring. A child cannot be left to their own devices. They are not aware of the consequences of their actions.

Therefore, anyone obliged to care for a minor child—whether by law, such as parents and guardians, or by contract, such as a camp counsellor—must remember that they are legally responsible for that person’s safety.

The beginning of the summer holidays is an excellent time to remind parents that leaving their child unattended by an adult in the yard or on a playground exposes them to legal liability. Let us remember that children require our care and constant supervision, and that guardians should above all be sober.

Let us not be indifferent; let us respond when we see children left without supervision. Sometimes a signal from a neighbour, an ordinary passer-by or any other person concerned about a child’s welfare can prevent a tragedy.

Endangering a child’s life or health carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.