The Smith kids really are special.

Don't feel too bad. Being obscenely rich in a dramatically unequal world is a moral failing as far as I'm concerned.

Growing old. You have a lot more to lose, in terms of social validation and source of confidence.

Somebody please remind me what the downsides are of winning the genetic lottery so my ostensibly-adult self doesn't have to spend the rest of the day envying a couple of kids.

It would still be all her fault! She is a mother, she is expected to be Perfect at all times!

I left my 4 year old daughter and nephew at homeby themselves so I could grab some milk from the corner store 2 streets away in my neighborhood. Why? I had a car seat for my daughter but not one for my nephew. I made them sit smack dab in the middle of the area rug in my living room, gave them a bag of cheetos and a…

Yes, yes! For instance, suppose she brought the kid into the store, and then in the process of rooting through her purse for money, she accidentally lost track of her kid for a minute. The kid might have run outside into the street, or grabbed some poison from a shelf, or climbed into the freezer or something.

Yes but clearly many people think what is missing in parenting is a more active police state.

I do not think this is about protecting children. It is about policing and hating on women for not be Good Enough. Protecting the kid would have been keeping an eye, and speaking to the mom. Prosecuting the mom helps no one.

>She gets no sympathy from me.

I teach in two very affluent schools and these kids are so helpless because their parents do everything for them. The basic basic things I've had to tell kids who were easily capable this year to figure out (followed by in every case them being amazed at their ability to figure it out. . . . they've been taught to…

Sorry, but your links have jack to do with this situation. The former is talking about temps higher than this situation and the latter cleary shows situations where the kids were forgotten in high temps. This was a cool day and she was in a hurry. There was no risk of her forgetting the child (because she was in a…

Exactly. It seems it would be much more beneficial to make the effort to teach our children how to handle difficult situations rather than just trying to over protect them from every little thing. I want my children to have the knowledge and confidence in themselves to make appropriate decisions and act if they're in…

I think these cases are slightly different because people can actually SEE when the child has been left alone. Kids get left alone all the time, be it for a minute or 30 or for hours behind closed doors...

Eight years ago I was a sleep deprived mom of a two-year-old and a 2-month-old. My grandmother was in a hospital, dying. I loaded my baby in the backseat of my car, left my other girl at home with my husband, and went to go visit my grandma. The hospital parking lot was full so I parked on the road a couple of blocks…

Thank you. I don't want to live in a world where people are calling the cops on each other just in case. Use your common sense!

I still think there is a huge difference between leaving a child in the car for five minutes in temperate conditions, and leaving a child or an animal of any kind in a piping hot car in the middle of the summer. My Mom would run in to pay at the gas station when I was little. Is this really illegal? Must be because…

I'm glad her kid was fine and since she was only gone a couple of minutes I don't want to jump down this woman's throat. It's highly unlikely (though still possible) that something terrible would have happened in that span of time.

I've had a good week. I recently moved to Chicago and had a 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd interview...and was offered the job. I got a job this week. My self-confidence is soaring. So I take this new photo and put it up on Facebook. It's of my face, hair, shoulders, and my chest. I feel really pretty in it and really good about…

Jezzies, as a cisdude I conquered a fear today and bought skirts!