[pax_et_bonum]

Folks can call the woman in this story names all day long, but she'll beat herself up more than we can. I can't imagine the hell the rest of her life will be.

I agree.

I'm not going to judge her.

Sleep deprivation, depression, or simply being distracted by too much to do and not enough time to do them: all of these could cause a person to be distracted and harried enough to forget anything.

This doesn't mean that she didn't love her baby and wasn't a good parent.

We've all made tragic mistakes. I'm just thankful that my mistakes haven't turned out to be tragic.

[maica]

I find it very interesting that people will not judge a person for an action that one could imagine doing. My theory about why judges are more lenient on drunk drivers, than drug addicts, for example, is because judges are more likely to drive after drinking, than to smoke crack.

Forgetting that you did not stop at the babysitter's is horrible. Our media have decided not to publicize this all too frequent occurence because producers, editors, and talent probably all have children that they drive in their own minivans and SUVs. We hear about what happened to one foolish girl on vacation in Aruba for more than a year now. Her story is exotic. Dead babies from middle-class parents' neglect is too close to home.