“How this can happen again and again with children and dogs, show up on the news and the morons among us keep on doing it. What kind of a world do these people live in?”
Assuming she simply forgot she had the kid, and the kid was sleeping in the back seat - very easy. Try living in an earthquake area and see if you can remember to always have an escape plan when you visit a building - you won’t (or at least I couldn’t during my time in CA, although I tried many times). Earthquakes drop off one’s mind quickly...until the ground rumbles again.
Best advice if you have a kid that’s too young to get out himself - get tinted windows and put in the front seat if it’s just the two of you. Worked for my kids.
I don’t think these mothers forget that they have a kid in the car. I think the kid is sleeping and the mothers tell themselves *I’ll only be in the store for a minute and I’ll get back to the car before he wakes up*.
Maybe the dads who leave the kid in the car and go into work all day actually forget they had the kid in the car, but not the mothers.