[VIDEO] Outrage as Mom is Charged for Leaving Her Baby in a Cart at the Store and Driving Home Without Him

[VIDEO] Outrage as Mom is Charged for Leaving Her Baby in a Cart at the Store and Driving Home Without Him

A mom who admits that she forgot her baby in a shopping cart at a grocery store has spoken out about her ‘horrible’ mistake but insists that she is a good mom, and the social media blow back has been outrageous. Here is her story:

Baby Left in Cart

Cherish Peterson, 27 from Gilbert, Arizona said she was rushing around a Fry’s grocery store on Monday trying to buy her nephew candy for his birthday when she became absent-minded.

The mom-of-four says she had three of her four young children with her, and she completely forgot that her two-month-old boy Huxton was in the shopping cart when she left it at the front of the shopping mall.

‘I’m a good mom who made a horrible mistake,’ she told CBS 5 in a tearful interview.

Gilbert police initially said no charges would be filed but have since lodged a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment to the town prosecutor.

In an emotional interview Peterson said: ‘I got into my car, and normally I put my cart away. But I didn’t need to because I parked at the front of the store and I never park there. And I drove away.’
Back in the store a Phoenix police officer spotted the baby in the cart and took him to a nearby Supercuts salon while they searched for his parents. He was not injured and showed no signs of distress, said police.

But Peterson’s actions ignited a firestorm on social media, with some people claiming she was probably a ‘bad mom who must have been drunk.’

The hashtag #IStandWithCherish also began trending on Twitter with tweets from moms who pledged their support for her. A Facebook page defending her has also sprang up.

Peterson said that when she got home she ‘quickly’ realized what she’d done.

She told CBS 5: ‘As I was pulling into the garage, my three-year-old goes, “Where’s baby Huxton?” His car seat is right behind me. I turned around and realized it was gone.’

From social media:

FB Cherish

Twitter Cherish

Twitter Cherish 1

Facebook is also supporting her:

I Stand With Cherish

Stand With Cherish

Personally, as a mom with 18 years of parenting experience, I know that we all make mistakes. She is clearly contrite, but I am skeptical that you could forget the 40+ pound infant carrier that you lugged into the store, even with 3 other kids in tow. It’s a sad story, and I doubt it will ever happen again, but hopefully she can get some help or whatever it is that she needs to be able to focus on all the kids and not leave any behind again.

Written by Katie McGuire. Send your hate mail to the author at katiefmcguire@gmail.com, or feel free to mean tweet me at @GOPKatie, where I will be sure to do very little about it.

McGuire

Writer, Blogger. Political aficionado. Addicted to all levels of government campaigns.

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