left 1 kid of 4 in shopping cart and driving off, realized baby was missing after 40 minutes

Think I was about 8 at a guess, didn't want to go on another family outing, so I told the parents I was tired, stuffed a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt with other clothes, arranged them under a blanket in the back of the car. And darned if it didn't work, and they drove off thinking I was sleeping back there. Not so funny when they showed up again 20 minutes later, mad as all get out to get the real me.

But really, if you've got 4 kids to deal with, I can understand losing track occasionally.

only my overtired dad just spaced out. They came looking for me later. I was three.

Face it, parents of young children are the most sleep deprived adults on the planet. In a complex society like ours, kids are occasionally going to be left in dangerous situations they never faced when we were hunter-gatherer types and left the cradle board hanging on a tree near the blackberry bushes.

Once is a mistake. Twice is the beginning of a bad habit. Three times, they lose the kids while they take parenting classes.

(but very clever!)

4 kids, and one (at least) is a baby? (And is it an age where it's still waking up over and over again at night?) Yeah, your brain is a mess. Horrible mistake.

I found another article that said they children are all young, and the baby is only 2 months old. I think it's more likely a sign the mom could use some support. There's a lack of sleep and all sorts of hormonal stuff going on at 2 months.

kids I think at the time put all in the car and drove off heading for town 8 miles away. Got part way there and remembered she left the baby sleeping at home. Went back of course but no one thought she was a terrible mother because that happened.

If it were in a public place it would be a different story.

i imagine that it was just a matter of :

1)doing something out of the routine (not parking in the usual place) and
2)being distracted (with all the other kids)

Not to be flippant, but file it under "shit happens." She isn't an awful mom.

But I think we have too much of a tendency to judge people on what could have happened.

99.9% of the time when a parent loses a child, a stranger will take the child to the store counter. Yet the online mob will imagine a parking lot full of child molesters and people driving recklessly, rather than the reality that most places in the US are safe for a briefly misplaced child.

And I, and I suspect most DU parents, are thinking "there but for the grace of God go I". It's good that this story had a happy ending.

when I had infants. It truly does a number on you. I didn't know if I was coming or going. Fortunately, I never had an experience like this, but then again I only have two kids several years apart. That was tough enough, I can't imagine four.

To all the people saying "TO MANY KIDS!', well... Her body, her choice.

That said, if you've ever forgotten something - ANYTHING - no matter how 'little', well congrats - You have the capability to forget a child as well. It's not to hard, really. People get into a specific routine, something little changes and - due to how the human brain is wired - that little change doesn't register and your brain goes back to the routine. In this case, put kids 1,2 and 3 in car, load groceries, put cart in up, grab baby 4. In this case, she parked in a diffrient spot - a little change - and her brain continued to follow the routine - kids 1, 2 and 3, load car, but wait - She doesn't walk over to put the cart away this time, so when she gets back to the car her brain has skipped that step and, because the routine is to grab kid 4 when putting the cart away, when she found herself in front of the car her brain told her 'ok, routine done - go home now'.

Of course, some people haven't bothered reading up on how the brain handles routine tasks so they tend to go with the emotional, burn the evil woman in fire, response rather then the logical, I understand how this can happen but thankfully everything turned out ok, route.

Edit - http://www.parents.com/baby/safety/car/danger-of-hot-car-for-children/

But that isn't the only factor in heatstroke deaths, and safety experts stress that the backseat remains the safest place for children. Another major contributor, one that's more difficult to comprehend, relates to the brain. "These are not negligent parents who have forgotten their kids," says David Diamond, Ph.D., a neuroscientist in the psychology department at the University of South Florida, in Tampa, who has reviewed the details of many hot-car deaths and has spent time with dozens of parents who unintentionally left their child in the car.

Understanding what they did, he says, requires grasping how two very different parts of the brain work. There are the basal ganglia -- the "background system" that controls our habits. "It allows us to do things without thinking about them," Dr. Diamond says. When you're training in sports, for example, you repeat an action over and over to fine-tune your skills. Once it's time to compete, the action is automatic. "Your basal ganglia take over and you don't have to think about how to bounce or shoot the ball."

Then there are the parts of the brain that control new information: the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. The basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex essentially compete with each other, Dr. Diamond says. When you change up your routine and do something different, then the new details have to be processed by the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex to override the basal ganglia's strong desire to perform actions out of habit.

The basal ganglia play a big part in driving. "Once you've driven from Point A to Point B enough times, you can do it without thinking," Dr. Diamond says. "You might not even remember the trip." If new information enters the picture (say, your partner calls to ask you to stop at the store and buy milk), your prefrontal cortex and hippocampus have to kick into gear to incorporate it. "But it's common to drive right past the store and come home. When your partner says, 'Where's the milk?' you feel flustered because you remember the conversation, but for some reason you came home instead." Why? Because you were on autopilot. "The basal ganglia actually suppress the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus from bringing that memory to your consciousness," explains Dr. Diamond.

...It's one thing to forget a gallon of milk and quite another to forget a child? ... isn't it? Dr. Diamond has been challenged in this way many times. "As a parent I sympathize with that view," he says. "But as a scientist I can tell you that the basal ganglia can suppress all kinds of memories, even of things that are the most important to us."

make it a habit to count her kids before driving off. Worked for me when taking 25+ kids on school field trips.

http://www.parents.com/baby/safety/car/danger-of-hot-car-for-children/

Page 2 explains things, read it.