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."
I am a baby boomer and came from a large family; most of my friends from back then came from families with at least three or four children. To say that things were more lax back then when it came to child care would be a gross understatement. Forgetting a kid somewhere would certainly not have made the news.
When I asked my dad if my 5 year old brother and I could use a can of gas to burn some ant piles or ride horses into town to get ice cream cones... he wouldn’t tell us “no”, or “be careful”, my dad would say, “Remember if something happens to you... your mom and I will just make another one that looks just like you.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t love us or was a bad parent; they figured that after getting hurt a few times we would learn to be more careful. We did get injured fairly seriously on some occasions and we did learn to be careful without a lot of pestering.
Facebook updates and driving? Happens all the time.
In any event - if you can forget them on the sidewalk you can just as easily forget them in a hot car.
Situational awareness - her No. 1 job is protecting her children - that baby could have been snatched up and on the black market in minutes.
I understand the concepts of grace and mercy - but protecting my daughter is job No. 1.
If a bill goes out late, the laundry piles up or the lawn doesn't get cut - no big deal. My daughter getting abducted because I was distracted with "stuff", THAT'S a big deal.
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.
Something similar happened to me when I was little, probably around 4-5 years old. I was with my mother at a big department store and as I recall I was with my mom as she was shopping for underwear but I saw purses and wallets in the next section (for some reason I was fascinated by purses – still am – LOL!) and then sort of wandered even further away, I think to the jewelry counter but thinking my mother was still nearby but she wasn’t. She had walked to another department thinking I was still following her close behind. For some reason I didn’t panic but walked over to the jewelry counter and ask the lady “I have lost my mother, could you please page her for me?” My mom was half mad at me (and herself) but also proud that I handled the situation so calmly and maturely.
FWIW - when I worked at “We-Be-Toys” and at Target for a while, both had protocols for such a situation similar to what you describe at Kohl’s. I don’t recall the code at Target but the code at “We-Be-Toys” was “Code Geoffrey” but whatever code word they use, most follow the Code Adam protocol, named for Adam Walsh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Adam
When store personnel heard the lost child code announced and depending on what section of the store you were working in, you had to go to an exit door or outside of a bathroom and someone would even do a sweep inside, looking for anything suspicious and someone would be stationed outside of the doors to the back rooms while others would fan out looking for any unaccompanied child. The mother/father/guardian was taken to the main exit door usually by a manager who obtained a description of the lost child including what clothes he or she was wearing, while others stationed at other exits, blocked those other exits directing anyone trying to leave the store to the main exit and having to pass by the mother/father/guardian of the lost child and no new customers were allowed in until the child was found and reunited with the parent. We did not announce the child’s name or description over the PA system as that could tip off to and could be used by an abductor to his or her advantage, but it was relayed to store personnel . If after 10 minutes, the child was not found, the police were called.
Don’t let the sanctimommies hear you say that.
All it takes is to do something in the less routine way like not rolling a cart to the cart stand. I’m sure she’s feeling horrible, and her children will probably never let her live it down. Instead of beating her into the ground, we should all be praising God that it turned out well.
Closest business where you’re sure to find a bunch of women/moms. The baby is 8 weeks old. Most men are very uncomfortable with babies that small.
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