It seems each day I hear about a mother who has forgotten about her sleeping child in the backseat of her car or the mother who forgets she has children all together (hint, Britney Spears).

These incidents typically end grimly, leaving a child with serious injuries, heat stroke and even dead.

This summer seems to have taken the cake when it comes to “mothers” leaving their infants in a roasting car and now as we enter the cooler months I fear we’ll have to watch how a child was left in a vehicle during below freezing temperatures.

I don’t get it. Why is it so hard to remember you have a child in the backseat of your car?

No, scratch that.

Why do “mothers” now days need to be reminded they are mothers?

This world is full of idiocy. And just when I think things are at their worse someone goes and does something that renews my feelings.

These contemplations also relate to women who have children and treat them like your average plastic shopping bag.

The news has been loaded with stories of moms who left their babies behind while they went to get a manicure, shopping and even to work.

I don’t buy these random excuses mothers give after their child was found suffocated in a hot car, like the always present: “Oh, I’m sorry I left my baby in the car, officer. I forgot she was sleeping in the backseat.”

Really? You forgot your child. Giving birth to another human being completely slipped your mind?

Yep, if they put a selective sterilization program on the ballot tomorrow, I’d vote for it.

Now days it’s harder to believe women are known as the responsible sex. We’re supposed to be the ones that remind their husbands and boyfriends to take out the trash and fix the kitchen sink…and then we forget our own offspring in the backseat?

Women of today seem to be evolving backwards.

For you moms who easily forget, here are some helpful hints there may be a child lost beneath the paper stacks or in the desk drawer:

* Remember those nine months where you got fat? It wasn’t just the Doritos.

* No, that wasn’t a Cutepie doll you brought home from the hospital gift shop.

* That stain on your top didn’t come from a burrito.

* There’s a reason why you have a diaper genie, a crib, bottles, etc.

* Those shoes do not belong to some small mythical being.

* Cheerios in your hair is not the newest fashion statement.

* There is a reason you pull up to a school or daycare every morning and afternoon…or maybe you forgot to do that too.

* Yep, a child would be the reason why you step on blocks and then trip on a toy car that sends you flying into the next room.

* No, you did not rent a room to a clown.

* Nor do you run a laundry mat for really little people.

* That whining noise coming from the backend of your car is not a stray kitten.

* That thing spewing orange food all over you is, in fact, a baby.

The most important thing about having a child is to remember it is not a cell phone, it does not have voicemail, therefore you cannot leave it in the car.

Amanda VanDerBroek is a Staff Writer for the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald. For comments and column suggestions email: amanda.vanderbroek@r-cnews.com or call (252) 332-7209.