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If we had to pinpoint it, we'd put our money on her public breakdown: Minutes after paparazzi captured Britney Spears stumbling and almost dropping her baby, the same shutter-hounds caught her quietly weeping in the window of a Manhattan restaurant. (We can only hope the eatery hasn't since put a framed photo of the depressing moment on their wall, accompanied by the caption, "Britney Spears at the precise moment she realizes she's a terrible mother living in a fishbowl...enjoying one of our world famous calzones!") In any case, the day marked a turning point in Spears' public perception: Mothers everywhere have since admitted that these sorts of mishaps happen often, and that the singer shouldn't be unfairly judged for doing the same.

"The woman just can't get a break!" says Lenna Janick, a mother of two in Ijamsville, Md. "I mean, I'm not gonna say that I love her. I don't know if she's a good mother or not. But she's human."

And as all moms know, "baby bobbles" happen all the time. Luckily, says Janick, news outlets weren't watching when she walked into a door years ago holding baby son Timmy, whose head hit the door jamb. Her other son, Alex, once fell off the bed as a baby. (Both are fine.) [...]

This weekend, the Web site parenting.com asked readers whether the media "has gone too far in its portrayal of Britney Spears as a bad mom." In a figure that surprised the editors, almost 10,000 people answered. The results: 75 percent said yes, 25 percent no.

Though opinion has shifted in Spears' favor, we hope the growing, grassroots campaign ends there. "Unofficial Britney Baby Bobble Solidarity Day," in which young, tired mothers gather en masse in local shopping mall parking lots to simultaneouly fumble their offspring, could quickly turn from a sympathetic protest event into a regrettable national tragedy.