comment: >
  
  It happened in 2 movies. Definitely her fault, as well as the dad. If you can't look after your kids, you don't need that many responsibilities.
context: Not sure what, exactly, to do with this, but I would think that one of the main arguments here would have been that the father bears just as much responsibility as mom. Thus far, your entire rationale, and the rationale offered by everyone else, has only focused on whether MOM screwed up. Why? Why doesn't DAD bear any responsibility?
  And really, why not just call it a collective failure of the entire family? Kevin's uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings, not a single one of them noticed or spoke up about the fact that Kevin seems to be absent. Don't they bear at least some blame?
  But really, I don't get why we're only talking about mom here and not dad. If it's a parenting issue, he's just as much a parent as she is. >
  
  Ya tbh, a kid is missing for a whole day and none of that massive family realises? How isolated was he? I have an extended family in Pakistan and I can't imagine this happening to any one of us. You don't just forget a family member you've known and loved for years, exists >
  
  
  loved 
  
  I think this one only applies to the parents lol. >
  
  No? Cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents? >
  
  Eh the only ones who ever seemed really worried about him were the parents and the one sister. >
  
  If you can't physically account for your kids and can't remember seeing them during an entire day, you probably have parenting issues. I come from a large extended family that vacations together so the idea that someone is forgotten because of large numbers doesn't add up to me. The most likely outcome is that the drivers of multiple vehicles assume someone is going with someone else, but that is resolved well before we get on a plane. It's also implied that Kevin gets picked on unfairly and his parents don't seem to do much to help (though it's been a while since I saw the film so I'm not sure.) >
  
  No it totally is. He’s stuck with the bed wetter in his bed and his older brother eats all the cheese(?) pizza despite knowing that he only likes that kind of pizza and then is blamed for being mad >
  
  Definitely exacerbated in the sequel when his brother humiliates him during a solo in choir and they make it Kevin’s fault. >
  
  They could have literally spent 20 seconds in the airport before going into the plane, to make sure everyone was there. >
  
  Whenever I went on field trips as a kid there was a register of all the kids names going on the trip, and whenever there was a change of locations a teacher would stand by the door and check everyone off as they entered/left the bus to make sure everyone was accounted for.
  It'd take no time at all for an adult with the group to do the same as they boarded the plane to notice they were missing someone.
  It's a basic rule for travelling with kids, you always double check who's with you before going anywhere because kids love to wonder off or decide they'd rather hide on the bus than do as they're told, etc. With a handful of kids it's easy, with 10+ kids just make a list and check them off. >
  
  No one else noticed Kevin was missing either. I can see how everyone in the vans would fail to notice. Either van could have had Kevin in it. And the chaos of arriving late to the airport would have distracted, too. And then the adults sat in a different section than the kids. The kids, however, all sitting together should have noticed him not being there. Presumably they all had tickets too, so they should have noticed at the gate. >
  
  Hus ticket was misplaced, so that check didn't work >
  
  His passport and his ticket? I only remember the passport. >
  
  I was only going by comments that said the stuardess did a headcount, but his ticket was missing, so it seemed to check out. Was the ticket in the passport?
  I've never seen it. >
  
  Oh, lol. I haven't watched it in a while. I'll probably watch it later today, so I'll look. >
  
  Cool. Let me know ;P >
  
  It's all of their fault. Kate certainly shouldn't bear all the blame, but she likely *felt* like she did because she was the mother. Realistically, it's all of the adults' fault, including the aunt and uncle, and you can blame the shitty little kid from across the street a bit for messing up the oldest daughter's headcount. >
  
  when my family travels, we check the number of luggages we have at each step. when we leave, when get pack it in the car, when we get it out of the car, right before we check the luggage through. the parents should have checked at the airport and right before they board that no child got lost. >
  
  She should but so should the father. Infact the father even more cause he didn’t even have a hint of a feeling that they left someone behind. He would have gone through that entire vacation not knowing.
  They both deserve blame. >
  
  I agree that anyone can still be a good parent after leaving a kid at home in this type of situation. 
  However that was not your initial point of her not being blamed. If the parent of the child left behind isn’t to blame for losing the kid than who is? Parents have the ultimate responsibility and accountability for what happens to a kid. Her and the dad are to be blamed fully for leaving him behind. If something worse had happened to Kevin and he got seriously injured or kidnapped the parents, including the mother would definitely be to blame. >
  
  They are all at fault. Most importantly the airline. 
  They have a headcount of all passengers on board, and they would be minus one. Someone's boarding pass (Kevin's) would have got scanned and it would list him in the manifest, but they would be minus one soul. 
  In addition, why are the parents not doing headcounts when everyone regrouped from the vans? 
  It's the parents' fault. As well as anyone else (the airline) of doing head counts. >
  
  People miss flights all the time, what is the airline supposed to do about it? >
  
  They page people literally all the time if they're not boarded shortly before the doors are supposed to close. And they ask on the plane as well. 
  His family should have heard his name if nothing else. >
  
  Why would they ask on the plane? Everyone is already boarded. They don't need to page people already on the plane.
  I have never in my life heard an airline page passengers while already sitting on the plane. And that includes times I've been sitting on a plane knowing a colleague is stuck in the security line and will miss the flight I'm currently sitting on.
  At best you could say that because they likely booked all the seats under the same reservation, and since they had boarding passes they've already checked in, that one of the flight crew members would go ask the person who booked the reservation about the missing passenger. >
  
  Are you thinking for the time period the movie took place in? Or are you comparing to modern standards?
  Reason I ask is that I and another kid got left behind on a filed trip (early 90s). The class got on a ferry, and me and another kid were left in the parking lot in a major city for 6 hours alone.
  My mom was mad, and the teachers felt bad, but there were no consequences. I feel like if that happened today it would at least be on the local news; and maybe even national news if it was a really slow news week.
  So, I'm not sure how to define reasonable precautions for a parent in your view. In the 90s? Or today? >
  
  I doubt it would make even the local news unless something bad happened to you. I know that kids get left on school buses for a couple of hours sometimes and that doesn't make the news. >
  
  If you only count the first one, sure. But once you add the second, third.... Are they on like 4 now? Isn't that a new family. Let's even just take one and two. It's the fact she does it again that raises eyebrows. What's going on that we aren't seeing?
  Granted, it's not just mom's fault. I blame every adult for not noticing Kevin wasn't there. Shoulda had a buddy system if you got that many ppl. And then you lost one already? How come in two they weren't more careful? 
  That's where I blame the family. The first one, fine. Unfortunate events. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. But then they did it again. And, technically, a third time, with possibly a different kid? I never saw 3, but I think it did star McCulken still. Then 4 a new kid, I think. But 3 or 4 is a different kid, so....
  But you know what? Once is still a tragic event, but twice? That's just terrible parenting. And you can't ignore 2. You just can't say, "Well, the first one only counts." Two was just as popular. I can even at least name one person who will die on the hill that two is better.  I'll toss 3 and any beyond that, but, you gotta count 2. 
  And at two times literally forgetting your kid, I'm sorry, CPS is getting involved.
  Edit: But I'll give you the blame doesn't shoulder entirely on the mother. You got a dad there, an older brother that clearly understands the gravity of losing a kid. And multiple other adults. But it definitely falls on both parents. It's their fuckin kid. >
  
  “CPS is getting involved” lol not likely. I got left at the grocery store twice ON PURPOSE by my mother for wandering off… as well as many other forms of “abuse” and you know what CPS said to us when my father called them on my mother? “Ok… what do you want US to do about it?… bye.” >
  
  His whole family is toxic af tbh you can see it in home alone 2 as well >
  
  This. Kevin being left behind isn't even top five of the problematic shit going on in this family. >
  
  Exactlyyg the church scene when he was made fun of by his brither and his mom wanted HIM fo apologize like man?? >
  
  Buzz should have been written out of the will over that.