Don't be so quick to judge parents who leave their kids in the back seat of a car [View all]

[La Lioness Priyanka]

I strongly encourage everyone to read this article. I know there is a visceral need to blame someone with negligence or ill intent when something this terrible happens, but generally this is purely a mistake that can happen to anyone.

This article points out that part of the problem is our modern technology (specifically having the child in the backseat with its back turned towards its parents).

I think this is a horrible tragedy but one that any of us can make, and unless we stop blaming individual parents, we are not going to invest heavily in finding ways to prevent this occurring.

To most parents for whom this occurs, their lives are destroyed by pain and guilt. That calls for compassion not blame.

"If few foresaw the tragic consequence of the lessened visibility of the child . . . well, who can blame them? What kind of person forgets a baby?

The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the last 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. An accountant. A soldier. A paralegal. An electrician. A Protestant clergyman. A rabbinical student. A nurse. A construction worker. An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/fatal-distraction-forgetting-a-child-in-thebackseat-of-a-car-is-a-horrifying-mistake-is-it-a-crime/2014/06/16/8ae0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html