Please do not give me parenting advice. Instead I want you to write it into law. Tell me exactly what to do because you, the government, know exactly everything I should know about parenting. And please put me in jail if I screw up even once.

There has been some talk about the negligence of the parents in this horrible thing which occurred in Georgia when 2 and 3 year old girls disappeared from their home and were later found drowned. I do think the circumstances should be investigated to make sure we do not have another infanticide but, absent such a finding, I do not think that we as a society need to look for an appropriate punishment for the parents. They've already suffered the worst imaginable punishment.

Any parent who has lost a child knows that it is not at all like other losses. The loss of a child is emotionally crippling. It is not merely the loss of a loved one, it is the loss of oneself. The mother of these two girls will never be whole again. She has had the, by far, most important things in her life ripped from her arms. I can only speak for myself but I know in my heart that if Almighty God, himself, were to come to me and say "I am taking one of your children or you," I would say "take me" in less than a single heartbeat. I think most parents are like that.

Any of us who has had one 2 year old knows how tiring it can be. Having two so close in age is very difficult. I am not condoning this mother's lack of care for her children but since there does not seem to be abuse in this circumstance, I have to assume that she is a normal, average parent. We all know of examples of bad parenting. We often do not agree with the parenting styles of others. But to say that we should look for punishment in a case of parental negligence is roughly the same as putting a person in jail for assault because they broke their arm doing some stupid trick on a skateboard. Parents are their children. Their children are they. There are certainly circumstances in which bad parenting can become criminal but when a child escapes from a non-abusive home, even twice in a couple hours, there is no criminality.

We cannot punish this woman for parenting stupidity. She has paid the ultimate price. If you disagree, I doubt you are a normal parent.