HURRICANE BETSY writes:

This will make some people mad, but I have nothing but sorrow for normal people (not psychopaths) who just have this sudden memory blackout and leave their children in the car in the sorts of situations you describe. They have to live with the consequences of what they did for the rest of their lives. They are being punished enough. Jailing them or chopping their hand off will not prevent these kinds of occurrences. Especially mothers of small children are sometimes so fatigued and overburdened their brain sometimes does not function as it should. No, it hasn’t happened to me, but it could have, and I thank God when I read about these things that it has not. Read More »

HERE IS another one of those cases of fatal distraction, similar to ones discussed here before. A Puerto Rican doctor was on her way to work when she forgot that her baby was in the car. She returned to her parked vehicle hours later to discover the baby dead.

This mother is to be pitied. She must pay the ultimate penalty for accepting an artificial way of life that is approved of and celebrated everywhere.

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FROM an Associated Press article today about the unusually high number of young children (18 altogether) who have died so far this year after they were left or trapped in cars:

Safety groups such as Kids and Cars and Safe Kids USA urge parents to check the back seat every time they exit the vehicle and to create a reminder system for themselves.

Some parents leave their cell phone or purse on the floor near the car seat to ensure they retrieve it along with the child. Others remind themselves by placing a stuffed animal in the car seat when the child isn’t using the seat and putting the toy in the front seat when the child is tucked in the car seat.

Imagine being so distracted and busy, so detached from your child, that you have to place a stuffed animal in the car to remind you he is there.

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THIS ARTICLE is almost too upsetting to read. The Washington Post examines the relatively rare, but increasingly common, incidence of children who die when they are left unattended in the back seats of cars during warm weather. It’s horrific. One child reportedly pulled out all her hair before succumbing. Some of the parents have faced criminal charges.

All of the cases appear to involve parents or relatives shuttling children to day care or babysitters. An investigator blames poor cognitive processing:

Some people think, ‘Okay, I can see forgetting a child for two minutes, but not eight hours.’ What they don’t understand is that the parent in his or her mind has dropped off the baby at day care and thinks the baby is happy and well taken care of. Once that’s in your brain, there is no reason to worry or check on the baby for the rest of the day.

That’s right. Drop off and forget. This whole way of life is criminal. Our entire culture, not the parents themselves, should be indicted for child neglect. If parents can’t remember when their babies are in the back seat of the car, how can they care for them day after day? For every baby neglected this way, there are thousands who are neglected in smaller, less noticeable ways, leading chaotic lives, shunted around like packages and suitcases. This is a wrong way to live and anyone living this life must sense it. But again, these parents have suffered and I don’t think it’s fair to charge them with murder. The deaths of these children should weigh heavy, like millstones, on all those who trumpet women’s liberation and the casual destruction of home.

Notice the mention in the story of a mother who is an Army veteran. Her frenetically over-scheduled life, with children conceived through artificial insemination while her husband is in Iraq, is desolating. It’s a chilling story. Our culture may shower children with material things, spoiling them with spurts of focused attention, but it remains profoundly hostile to the young.

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