[Rita Hayworth]

Save the 'poor mother' routine, she is a monster.

Woah, thank goodness you are perfect or your comment might be considered heartless.

[RockinRight]

Who does your tagline refer to?

[Fairview]

Rita, I sometimes drive around with a saddle in the back of my car because I'm going riding after work. I don't want to leave it in the car on a hot day because the high temperature in a car will dry out the leather and stitching, and it would cost $2K to replace it. So when I get to work I decide whether to take the saddle inside with me. I can't see the saddle and it certainly doesn't make a noise in the car; I'm often hassled, exasperated by traffic, and running a little late by the time I pull into the office parking lot. And I am by nature and by age a very stressed-out and forgetful person, with five thousand things to remember for myself and my family. Yet I've never forgotten that saddle and left it in the car on a hot day. I've never even forgotten for a few minutes and had to go back for it.

The saddle is just a saddle, an inanimate object that can be replaced with money. It's not important in the grand scheme of things; it's not even unique. It is certainly not a precious, irreplaceable child. But as forgetful as I am, I remember it. I absolutely do not understand how even the most harassed mother could forget her own child like that. Does she not think forty times a day about her child and what he is doing? I certainly think about my children all the time--whether in the middle of meetings, writing reports, answering the phone.

I am very far from being a perfect mother much less a perfect person. But if I can remember an inanimate object, it is not too much to expect a mother to remember not to leave her child to die.