"... DAMMIT! YOU NEVER LEAVE A MAN BEHIND!"
Posted on 08/30/2015 3:57:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The Gilbert mother who forgot her baby in a shopping cart in front of a grocery store this week is breaking her silence.
"I'm a good mom who made a horrible mistake," she says.
In a tearful interview, 27-year-old Cherish Peterson acknowledges she made a terrible mistake while rushing in and out of a Fry's grocery store on Monday to buy some candy for a nephew's birthday.
On that day, Cherish was with three of her four small children when she inadvertently forgot her 2-month-old baby boy in the shopping cart in front of the store.
"I got into my car, and normally I put my cart away," says Peterson. "But I didn't need to because I parked at the front of the store and I never park there. And I drove away."
The baby was spotted almost immediately by an off-duty Phoenix police officer, who took the infant into a nearby Supercuts salon.
Fortunately, the boy was not injured and he is doing fine.
But in the days that followed, Peterson faced a blast of criticism on social media, as people called her a drug addict and a terrible mom.
But Gilbert police say Peterson returned to look for her baby within 40 minutes when she realized her mistake.
"As I was pulling into the garage, my 3-year-old goes, where's baby Huxton?'" Peterson says. "His car seat is right behind me. I turned around and realized it was gone."
"It was still a long time," Peterson admits. "It was still 40 minutes. It was not two hours. And I never took my other kids out of the car, so it wasn't like I knew I left him. I thought the whole time he was in my car."
"I married the best, in terms of the mother and wife Cherish is to me and our children," says her husband Nathan Peterson, coming to his wife's defense. "A mistake was made, and we learned, but we're not perfect. We're not perfect. But we love our family and we love our children and we are grateful that everything is OK."
After initially indicating no charges would be filed against Peterson, Gilbert police have now forwarded a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment to the town prosecutor.
The Petersons contend it was a mistake that they will agonize over the rest of their lives.
"It's hard when you can't shield your beloved wife and family from hateful and judgmental things," says Nathan Peterson.
"There is nothing I love more in this world than being a mom," says Cherish Peterson. "And there is no one in this world who could love my kids more than me."
Stuff happens.
"... DAMMIT! YOU NEVER LEAVE A MAN BEHIND!"
Slow down and count kids before you drive off. I have 5.
I left my newborn second child out in the driveway in his carrier on the day we brought him home. I was busy getting my wife, my first child and my 6 year old step-daughter out of vehicles and into the house and settled in.
Wasn't used to having a third child. A bit later I thought: "Something's missing". Then I remembered! There he was snoozing in his carrier sitting on the concrete next to the car. LOL!
He's 20 now and this is a family story we love to tell.
I have six and we always do a head count....wheres..? ok, got em all. Let’s go.
This has happened several times in our area, sometimes with horrible consequences.
I think some people are just very irresponsible and thoughtless (a while back, a Maryland woman left her child in the car while she gambled at a casino for eight hours.) With others, I think the pace of modern life is just so hectic and distracting that otherwise good people become overloaded and make mistakes.
-JT
40 minutes!? Must have had some important Facebook stuff to do first....
One time, but thankfully only once, we took off in the van and then took the head count. Found we had left 2 of our 9 back at the house.
Conclusion: do the headcount before you pull out.
2. This baby is two months old. She must be exhausted.
3. Along with everything else, she was grocery shopping with all four children. That's not easy.
4. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes.
I hate to say it, but this woman was right. I left one of my daughters in a bank once because I was running a Christian day-camp and had gone down to town to buy supplies. My daughter was supposed to be with her age group and go wherever they were going. But at the very last moment, she got in my car, and then when we got to the bank - it turned out to be a long and complicated transaction - she wandered off.
And by the time I left, I had literally forgotten that she had been with me.
The bank called me, of course, and it was extremely embarrassing to come back and get my daughter, particularly since she was having a great time and being fed cookies by the bank staff!
If this woman was a known substance abuser or had been known to be abusive or neglectful toward her children, I can see charging her, but one time? No.
The ones to go after are those who leave the kids in a hot car while they go gambling or getting their nails done. Or the ones who go meet their “connection” with the little ones in the car. These are the ones who shouldn’t be allowed near a child.
If all parents (even, or especially, good parents) would take a moment and remember back to the worst missteps they made with their kids, oh my goodness, how it all comes rolling back. Literal 2-second slips that wind up with the kid in the hospital --- Ai, ai, ai, don't ask me. It was awful.
Leaving your baby in a grocery cart and getting him back again in just over half an hour, safe and happy, is very much in the "Thank You, Dear Jesus" category.
I was in Kohl’s department store with my little one. On the way to the men’s pants, he saw some toys.
At the men’s department, I told him to stay close. I looked at the pants for 2 seconds, literally 2 seconds.
He disappeared like a magic trick. I raced around the store looking for him in a panic. I informed the store personnel about it. They posted people near the doors in case it was a kidnapping. They quickly assembled a search party and began to fan out into the store. Suddenly, there he was at my knee height looking at me, just as magically.
Seconds can make all the difference.
Unless you only have two or less kids, I guarantee you that forgetting a child is going to happen at least once before the child reaches 18.
Forget a / YOUR baby in a SHOPPING CART?
and you say... ‘stuff happens’?
Are you serious?
... left in the rear seat is semi- plausible, while inexcusable.
LEFT in a shopping cart?
... MUST mean that person wouldn’t even have the decency to return/place cart in the designated area.
Whatever.
Love that movie.......laugh every time at this scene and when the lone biker of the apocalypse first shows up
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