Parents have a habit of forgetting their children. On good days, the stories are funny and no lasting harm is done.
Though, I’m still bitter about the daycare that always forgot me after morning kindergarten at the school across the street. They were supposed to come help me cross safely, but often I was still waiting by the time my parents finished work. Ugh.
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Still, despite a lingering distrust of daycares, I came out of it unharmed and with the patience of a saint.
No, I would not just cross myself or accept the help of a passing stranger. It was against the rules !
God, I must have been a brat…
Unfortunately, it’s the sad stories that make the news.
Mainstream media often grasps onto stories about kids (and pets) forgotten in hot cars, and with good reason.
Sad as they are, these stories help reinforce habits that hopefully cut down on such tragic accidents.
While many people scoff and think that only bad parents could ever forget their child, researchers have clearer ideas.
In a 2016 article written for CNN , David Diamond, a professor of psychology, molecular pharmacology, and physiology, shared his hypothesis that it happens most often when the routine is different than the norm.
You know how sometimes your drive to work is so routine that it feels like autopilot takes over?
Diamond says that when plans change, such as swapping who drops the toddler off at daycare, mistakes are more likely to happen.
This type of memory failure is the result of a competition between the brain’s “habit memory” system and its “prospective memory” system — and the habit memory system prevails.
The more plans and such you need to remember, the more likely you are to forget something.
And for one mom, that mistake was forgetting her infant in the boarding area of the airport.
I imagine that she was in a fluster, probably trying to make sure she had everything and thus, forgot the one thing you’d never think to forget.
The flight wasn’t in the air long before air traffic control got a message from the pilot.
They’d just left King Abdul Aziz International Airport, heading to Kuala Lampur, and the mom realized her mistake. Can you imagine the panic she felt?
Luckily, the pilot was pretty chill about it.
A video of the ATC conversation went viral in Saudi Arabia and the surrounding region.
In it, the pilot asks , “May God be with us. Can we come back or what?”
You can hear the operator discussing what to do, but after confirming the issue again with the pilot, they allow them to make the emergency return.
“Ok, head back to the gate. This is totally a new one for us!” the operators said.
It’s actually good to hear that this is such an unusual occurrence.
While the mistake was probably a headache for the flight crew and passengers, the pilot is being praised for his “humanity” in returning to the airport, where the mom and baby were reunited safely.
