Death of a Child

Perhaps you have to be a parent to understand this film. My children are all four-legged and furry. However, I am an adult with many responsibilities, and I can't comprehend how much of a fog you would have to be in to leave your child, or to "forget" your child, in a car. I watched this film, expecting to be moved, expecting to feel their pain, expecting to understand something about it, anything about it. I felt nothing but disbelief as several continued on as if their biggest concern was jail. I didn't feel their grief. I didn't like any of them, except the mother of the first child whose death they delved into. Perhaps it was a poor job of directing, perhaps I'm just incapable of understanding how one forgets something so important in a vehicle. We got through 40 minutes of this, and I couldn't take anymore. Someone can talk about how they felt suicidal, or how they felt like they couldn't go on, but if I don't "feel" that coming from you, I don't believe a word of it. The death of a child breaks my heart. This documentary just made me sick with rage.

No parent or caregiver wants to think they could accidentally harm or kill their child, but, as this film shows, even very caring parents can make a horrible mistake. The rest of us get lucky that we turn around just in time or hear something that alerts us to a potential problem.

I appreciate the frankness of these parents and how well they express themselves. My heart goes out to them.

I recommend the Washington Post article "Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime?" by Gene Weingarten. He rightly won a Pulitzer for the piece. He goes into more detail about some elements that got less time here. Some of it is tough reading, but I am grateful to have learned.

This film is very sad but also gross, like how can you be so negligent, but I noticed in all cases it's parents rushing their child off to a daycare or babysitter- there aren't any stay at home mothers or fathers involved in these children's lives, it's all people who are sending them to daycare.

I can't thank enough to the people involved of making this documentary for help me and a lot other people to see the reality behind the lives of the families that go through that sad situation , we tend to judge without realizing the pain they are going through. Stay strong, life gets better.

God bless you Doug & Diana and the other couples who also shared their stories. May God use your message to teach and heal others.