My mom did that to me, except fortunately I didn't die (obviously). I was about four or five and acting up in church and didn't want to go to the nursery, so mom put me in the car on a hot day and left me there for about an hour. I got sick with heat stroke but didn't have any lasting effects.

My mom was just really thoughtless and didn't know how to take care of a child. She almost killed me a couple times but it was accidental (dropped me as a baby, let me wander out of the house, etc.) She never caught the fact that I have birth defects in my hips that I will probably have to have surgery to correct now as an adult. She loves me but she does things without considering the consequences and just kind of didn't pay attention for a lot of my childhood even before she got sick. It's not because she didn't care, I think she just has problems of her own, maybe ADHD or similar. She's scatterbrained.

I know what you mean by having to grow up too fast, I was a very responsible kid because I had to be. Fortunately my grandmother lived with us and helped raise me. She was my rock and I miss her.

It's very hard to look at your childhood and deal with the anger and guilt and sense of loss when you love your family but also didn't get what you needed from them.