In many cases, both parents don't have to work 40+ hours a week, they just do because they want more and more material things. People are in debt up to their eyeballs because they WANT everything they see. Our economy has suffered because of it. People buy everything on credit knowing they can't afford it.

If everyone just learned to live within their means we would not have these problems. It is very possible for one parent to stay home while one parent works, as long as you decide what's important to you. You're not going to have the best of everything, but you will be able to spend time with your children. You just have to decide what's more important... "stuff" or your kids.

Also, I truly believe that people put more thought into buying a car than they put into having children. They don't prepare, they just start having children even when they know they aren't prepared nor can they afford it. It's incredibly irresponsible.

I got to this screen by clicking on the producer's blog. So tell that to the producers. Anyways, sounds like you figured out the simple truth. There are opinions everywhere. I'll say it again, I'm not the judge, nor you. If you are entitled to your opinion...why are you having a hard time with others? There was no accusations stated...so why are you fired up and accusing me? What's the real problem you dealing with. Not me. Have a good life. Enjoy it.

I agree. I do not feel it is right or ok, but I certainly have made mistakes in my life. i hope to God I never make a mistake that would harm anyone especially my child. However, this woman is going to have to live with this for the rest of her life. There's no worse critic than yourself. My heart aches for this child, this family and this mother. People make mistakes, wrong decisions, I just feel horrible about this. I think she should try to continue to make a positive about this, raise awareness, so this doesn't happen again. It certainly has made me more aware when I am taking care of my child.

I was shocked at the amount of women who had things to say about how hard, crazy & impossible motherhood has been for them. This must be a newer generation of Mom's! I did relate to Karen, from Houston, who said she allowed her kids to think she' was crazy, also Heija, from Washington, who said " I will take everything away from you". But this talk saying "what did i do to my body, did i make a mistake having a kid, i'm peeing in a diaper, i'm going nuts, We need a wife!" I cannot relate whatsoever to these mom's and i gotta tell ya my life was not easy. I was a teen preganancy of the 1970's. My mother did not talk to us girls about such things, it was hush hush. I was very ignorant however, I knew how to take care of a baby. My mother had seven kid's and i was the second child. I was changing diapers, cooking dinner and washing clothes at age 11. When I was seventeen i became preganant. i was absolutely crazy about my baby. In fact so crazy that by the time i was nineteen i had another, still unmarried, didn't care (my Mom& Dad did!) I was happy with my kid's. My mother took me down to the welfare dept. in L.A. and hooked me up because she had a baby at home herself with five kids. She helped me alot, mostly by teaching me, but also by telling me "Your gonna take care of this baby, by God" . I lived in a one bedroom duplex with my boy's. I did not need a wife! I never felt overwhelmed or sorry and i had every reason to, because my boyfriend did not want the responsibility of kid's. I was fine with that, i thought he was a jerk but oh well, i was nuts for my boy's. I kept my little house spotless and my kids too. I took them everywhere from Disneyland to camping on the colorado river to yosemite, the beahces, everywhere, I'm a jerk magnet, I married, got pregnant, got divorced! I loved having a big family. I had a total of six children, four of them homebirths. Never did I have support from their fathers. A total of 16 years as a single mom, but not in a row. I cleaned houses, got welfare off and on. I became a manicurists, but gave it up three months later because i would have been neglecting my kids of their mother and took up cleaning houses again. I owned my own consignment store for a time, my daughter Lacy , worked the cash register after school at age 8. I loved every minute of raising my kids. We did not have money, we always had a decent place to live, the house was kept spotless rooms organized the kid's had to clean too house & yard. I packed their little lunches for school til they could pack their own, we made breakfast, I always cooked. I was a health nut so they ate very healthy, sugar was a treat. I drove old cars. My kid's loved each other, the older kid's were their at my home births, I nursed all six kid's, four of them up to 2 1/2 years. I took all the kid's & babies everywhere, I never needed outside help. I was very organized and on the ball type person and like Karen, at times i allowed the kid's to wonder if i was crazy because it works! (maybe i was at times) i did go through two divorces and felt that very much. But i loved being a Mom. They say ignorence is bliss, I believe that to be true in my case because i never knew my life was hard. I overheard my dad say it once and for a moment i wondered why he said that! I was happy as long as i had my kid's. Getting divorced was hard because i wanted the kid's to have a wonderful dad, like i did. That never happened. We all went through some bad stuff but things always change and i knew that. The worst thing i did to my kid's was marry the wrong men and i did not listen as much as i should have to them. I was busy with my mission! Only my eldest son David, got my undivided attention most because he would come into my room at night and lay on my bed and talk to me about his day and i would listen and which ever kid was a nursing baby! lol Each of us were all about the babies. I don't think the babies feet ever hit the ground between David, Paul (second oldest son) and myself. However, I finally married a nice man thirteen years ago, but I have had a child since i was seventeen and at age 55 i still have a child, a 12 year old daughter. I had her at age 42 at home, the last of the mohicans! Maybe you can see why cannot relate to the women on friday's show and i'm certain that there are a lot more women who feel different from those on fridays show out there too.

This lady claimed this was an accident. Lot of you seemed to be buying that. What if she had done this before. What if she left her child alone in the car several times before. I followed this story from the beginning. This lady had a habit of leaving her child alone in the car. She was even warned by her older daughter's school principal, not to leave the child alone in the car. She often left her younger child alone when she dropped off her older child at school. She often left her younger child alone in the car when she had to run errands. This was no isolated accident. It sickens me to see her playing a victim. The real victim is that child who suffered for a long time in that hot car crying and screaming for her mom. Let's not forget the true victim.

I wrote a response awhile ago- but it's gone. I think this woman might have a food addiction. It would explain her losing track of time and being so filled with confusion.

I see we have another case in Sebastian, Florida where Stephanie Werking left her 5 month old son in the car as she went off to work. Eight hours later, and the baby is dead. Seems the mother forgot to drop the child off at day care. How does one forget they have a child in the car?

Wow, this story really made me think. So many times we are so overwhelmed and our kids suffer in the long run. We got to S-L-O-W down, and take a few minutes out for ourselves to get it together. Because of this so many of our children are being beaten, neglected, and misunderstood.

I haven't posted for a really long time about this story, partly because I got tired of all of the rationalizations; as though we should all feel really bad for this woman who cared so little for her child's comfort and emotional security that she would leave her repeatedly alone in a vehicle. I can't imagine getting my 2 year old up in the morning and not changing her diaper, getting her dressed for the day and feeding her before strapping her in a vehicle to spend the day at daycare. I can not imagine just moving her (still asleep) to her car seat in a soiled diaper to start her day. I am appalled.

There is no excuse for forgetting your child in the car, especially if you walk past the window SEVERAL times, and unload the vehicle of doughnuts, your purse; move the vehicle to a new spot after unloading it....... Was there something medically wrong with this child? Neither of my children would sleep through doors opening and closing, the hatch opening and closing over and over again. It makes you wonder doesn't it? How many kids in that age group sleep that much, she said it was common for Cecilia to sleep through the move to the car and to stay sleeping after being dropped off at daycare for a while (can't remember the exact quote) is that normal?? I would be questioning that for sure. I have taken care of many children in that age group and have never known a child to sleep through all of that.

I don't think that anyone on here is judging so much as wondering how this can happen EVER?? I know many moms who are or have been overwhelmed in their lives, but NONE of them have made such a greivous "mistake". There are a lot of mistakes that moms make on a regular basis that can and should be forgiven, but this is not one of them. Leaving a child to roast in a car is not a "mistake" it is a crime, and as such the perpetrator of the crime should be prosecuted. There is NO EXCUSE for "forgetting" your child, not in a car, not in a store, not EVER. When you think about your child throughout the day, or you are laughing about something your babies are doing would you not think to yourself hmmmmm "wonder what my children are doing right now...." OH CRAP I think I left my baby in the car!!!

This story is ridiculous, and the reactions of the mother were disturbing at the very least; she was not hysterical nor was she appologetic. Any mother feels guilty for the smallest of mistakes so it should go without saying that this mother should be crazy with guilt but....... she was able to recount the day and smile, even laugh a time or two. Disgusting, and unforgiveable; that is my opinion...let the flaming begin!!

Although, I have always been extremely careful about taking my children in with me wherever I go (even if this means waking up a sleeping child), I can understand how this would happen. I said this to someone one time, and they looked at me like I was crazy, but I replied to HIM (man, of course), that when you get so busy, things can be forgotten, even the most important things in our life. Really, how many mothers or fathers would intentionally leave a child in a hot car? I have forgotten to buckle my children into their carseats numerous times (like when running late) or one time when my son cut his finger open and I was racing him to the er, I stopped fast and something hit the back of my seat. It was him because I was so panicked about his finger that I forgot to buckle him in his carseat.

After my 3rd child was born, I was so sleep deprived, but I still had two older children that I had to take here, take there. It was August in Texas, and I was so paranoid about leaving my sleeping newborn in the car that I had a horrible nightmare that I'd left her in the car, and she had died. It was the worst nightmare of my life, but in some ways, I'm happy that I had that nightmare. After that, any time we went anywhere, even if I knew I didn't have her with me, I always went over to her side and checked. If my older kids were with me, we did baby check before we got out of the car. They got so good at it that I barely had to remember to do it myself. If my husband had her with him, I'd call him and remind him to take her out of the car. Yes, he got annoyed with me, but it's better than the alternative.

I think all parents need to develop a checking system, like mine, so this doesn't happen again. One minute or less of checking the car will save a lifetime of heartache. I think that they even have developed devices now that alert you if a child is left in the car. They need to come up with something like that so this won't happen again.