Kids, Cars, and the First Day of Summer

Today is the first day of summer and it is turning into a hot one. I am already having lots of summer fun with grandkids, great nephews, and great nieces but today during a lull in the action while I was walking around the block to pick up my dog I was thinking about the kids and dogs left in hot cars. I was thinking about this because it was not even noon and hot as blazes already. These tragic accidents, when kids or pets are left in cars, end badly and seem to happen every summer. I could differentiate between dogs and kids because often the dogs have the windows cracked and can bark and call attention to themselves. The owners who leave them know they are in there despite the danger. With kids it seems that the parents are often on autopilot and actually forget if the child is sleeping (like ours were-all conked out after a day at the beach) and makes no protest to jar the parent into remembering they are there. I read a suggestion that I think would serve two purposes, put your cellphone in the back seat next to the baby (sad that you might remember that over your child but there is that) and the diaper bag in the front passenger seat to serve as reminders. Having the phone in the back would make you check the backseat (and notice that sleepy little lovebug) and also serve to keep the driver from texting and driving too.