How can parents forget their child?

I read a news article today where the parents forgot their toddler at the airport and did not realise their mistake until they were contacted by the airport authority. And I wondered "Aisa kaise ho sakta hai? Aisa sirf movies mein hota hai!" (How can this be. This happens only in movies)

But no one can deny that this actually happened. I still cannot get myself to understand how can this be possible? How can a parent forget about a child, their own child and not for a minute of two but for full 4-5 hours!!??

How can they just assume and not check on the spouse even if they thought the kids was with him/her? I am not trying to say that I'm the best and the most careful parent here but at least we are always conscious of the fact as to who Betu is with. And even if we know we keep checking to confirm that Betu is with either of us or whoever he was with.

I remember once when we had gone to out of town for a wedding around this time of the year and we left him with our relatives to get our dinner. And when we say left him I mean made him sit at the dinner table with his Dadu and his bua and her kids. And when we returned with our plates to the table, he was no where to be seen. On asking where he was no one knew and everyone started to run frantically in all directions to look for him. It took us about 10 minutes to locate him and I just cannot describe what I went through in those 10 minutes. I have never left him with anyone since then, to leave him with somebody else. He has to be with me or his Papa.

I guess when you are not in the regular responsibility of a child, you tend to go into your usual mode and forget. I have done so too once with a kid of a relative so I know it can happen with anyone.

Its is a never ending debate on how should one parent a child but somehow this is the most ghastly mistake a parent can ever do in my eyes. I dread to imagine what the child must have gone through in those 4-5 hours of not finding his parents.