I Don't Stand With Cherish

I Don't Stand With Cherish.

I'm sure you've seen the hashtag. I'm sure you've read the story somewhere. Cherish, mother of 4 in Arizona, accidentally left her 2 month old son in a shopping cart. Loaded her other kids and groceries into the car. Drove away and didn't come back for 40 minutes.

Now, I am not for a minute saying she did it on purpose. While I legitimately cannot imagine forgetting your baby somewhere, I don't think she had malicious intent, which is needed in "crime." But I also don't think that 99% of parents who forget their kids in hot cars do that on purpose.

It's a slippery slope folks. We can't punish the people who make the same mistakes but the only difference is that something bad happened. Drunk drivers are ticketed regardless of whether they've been in an accident or not.

And it's not like she called 911 immediately after realizing she left her kid and cried and told them she was coming back and could someone go check on him to keep him safe until she got there. Because for the 20 or so minutes when she DID know he was missing she did nothing but turn around to go get him. At that point, she was actually knowingly putting her child in danger. And that is child endangerment.

I am not trying to advocate for her kids to be taken away, I am sure she's no worse a mother than most, she just made a bad mistake and then made a bad judgement call after the fact. But I do think she should have a probation period. Someone to check in on them occasionally and make sure all is well. And maybe an evaluation just to be certain Cherish isn't suffering from PPD. Because if she is, and this is a terrible manifest of her symptoms she does in fact need help.

Again, I don't think she should go to jail. I don't think her kids should be taken away. But I also don't think this is a situation where we are all supposed to stand together and make all consequences go away.

So no, I don't stand with Cherish. At least not in the way the hashtag implies.