Reply #35: I'm not arguing that it isn't careless.

[Pithlet]

I'm arguing that it can happen to the best parents because even the best ones have their careless moments. Because it is true. It's a scary truth because we want to think we're immune to it because we're such good parents. But that isn't the truth. I think knowing that truth is what makes us conscientious parents the way we are. We know that it could happen to us if we aren't constantly on our guard. Some of us just don't take it to the inevitable conclusion that we are also human, so those careless moments can happen despite our vigilance. It's a scary, tragic truth. It's scary to think that some of these parents who lost their children were just like us. But it's important to know that.

I think the point that some mistakes are worse than others is moot when the end result is the same. A dead child is a dead child, whether they drowned in the tub because you got up to answer the phone, or because the routine changed and you got no sleep and forgot you were the one who was supposed to drop the baby off at daycare. Both mistakes can happen to normal, average, loving parents. There are clueless dolts who's kids die because they were negligently and willfully careless. And then there are kids who die because their average, loving parents were human and had a careless moment.