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."
Funny, that’s exactly the first thing I thought of...
I can understand. When my two kids were small, my wife put them both in the car to do some shopping. She had to load the car seat, the baby bucket, the various bags, blankets, etc. Finally, after she loaded everything, she backed out of the garage. She forgot only one thing! She forgot to open the garage door.
My 2 aunts had 4 kids ea and my mom had me so almost everywhere we went we had 9 kids. One of my younger cousins was quiet and a loner. He’d sit in the back of the house all alone for hours playing with his small cars. I can remember we left him on a couple of occasions. When we’d run back to pick him up he’d still be in the same place still playing. Those were different times. Lol
Sometimes that doesn't work either...
Wife and I have six children, years ago we were leaving Church and I did a head count 1, 2 ,3 ,4, 5, 6 little heads in the minivan...Check...off we go..
Unbeknownst to my wife and I one of my kids invited a friend over that day that made the headcount correct...
Yup, we left our youngest daughter at church...
Youth Pastor dropped her off about a half an hour later...
I haven’t heard that before?
I was living in Florida at the time......the story we had is the mom left him in front of the videos at Sears while she shopped for lamps in the same store.
When she returned ....he was gone.
The baby was spotted almost immediately by an off-duty Phoenix police officer, who took the infant into a nearby Supercuts salon.
Supercuts? WTH?
He (or she) was fast asleep.
Yep. Sometimes you just lose it!
One time we went to church in two cars. After church, I thought my husband got the child out of the church nursery - he thought I got the child - we both got home and NO CHILD. Husband raced back to nursery and they were waiting on one of us to come back and get him. That didn’t happen again.
No, she was driving out 20 minutes and back 20 once she realized she left the baby. Or maybe it was out 30, back 10...it would have been if it was me driving. Cut the lady a break. She had three other kids under the age of 8 in the car. It makes me exhausted just thinking about it.
At your prompting, I keyword searched this story and they seem to say that Adam’s mom let him play video games in the electronics department while she shopped elsewhere in the department store. A young security guards asked the teenaged kids who were playing video games with or next to Adam to leave because they were causing a ruckus. It appears Adam went with the flow, leaving the store and found himself outside one of the store entrances where he was lured into a Cadillac by the monster who killed him.
Still, don’t take your eyes off ‘em. It’s probably worse now that we have a “do whatever your evil heart desires” society today.
It makes me wonder if they’ve had other people leave the kid in the store while getting a haircut, or if he assumed the mother was one of the staff at the business next door.
We’ve had women here in Phoenix leave their kids in a car in 105 degree heat while they go into a bar. Another went to a job interview and left her kid out in the car. This was a completely different situation.
Where you store your treasure so also is your heart.
I had 5 in six years.
Things like this can happen.
.
She left a 3 year old in a car while she was in the store running errands? And the other kids too?
I think it means she never took the kids out of the car once they were in.
I'm not so sure. What she said seems to indicate that didn't even remember taking him out of the car into the store with her.
How on earth could she think he was in the car the whole time when she left him at the store? She didn't remember taking him out, which is the only way he could have gotten where he was?
It doesn't make sense.
I had 20. Counted them all the time, but still left one or two occasionally—but never the babies. It was always the older kids who knew what “load up” meant. The van always looked full to me...
It happened once to Mary and Joseph.
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