USA Today | Family left 3-year-old in corn maze, didn't notice until next day

[tshile]

USA Today | Family left 3-year-old in corn maze, didn't notice until next day

 

Quote

...

The mother failed to notice her son was missing until the next morning. 

An unrelated guest found the boy near the maze entrance at about 7:30 p.m. MT. 

 

"He was crying and upset and obviously scared," Kendall Schmidt, who runs the maze, told The Washington Post.

"We couldn’t get him to give us his name," Schmidt added. "He could say his brother’s name and his cat’s name, but not his own name."

 

An off-duty police officer let the boy watch a movie on a laptop in her patrol car while staff members walked through the maze with a bullhorn trying to find the parents. When they couldn't find his family, they waited for someone to return for the boy. 

 

Closing time came and went, but no one ever arrived. The Utah Division of Child and Family Services kept the boy overnight. 

 

The child's mother woke up Tuesday morning and finally noticed he was missing. 

 

"She realized she may have left him at the corn maze and called us," West Jordan police Sgt. Joe Monson told The Salt Lake Tribune. The Division of Child and Familly Services told police the mother would be subject to questioning before the boy could be returned to her custody. 

...

 

There's more at the link.

 

I don't understand how that happens. Parenting is hard and mistakes are easy, and there's no shortage of people available to criticize you. But... you left with out him, got home, and went to bed with out him, and didn't realize it until the next day?

 

[AJ*]

As a parent whose greatest fear is losing my child anywhere in public I don't have the words. 

[CRobi21]

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

What absolute B/S. 'Didn't notice he was missing' my pasty white ass! More like you didn't' CARE he was missing. Forget going to bed overnight and not checking your kids are safely asleep. The very fact you got back in the car and left without your son, a THREE-year-old at that ..... Man I aren't an advocate of physical violence. Particularly toward woman. But the anger someone like that cause you ...... 

 

She wants her children taken from her because she's sure as Hell not fit to be a parent. 

 

An utterly disgraceful excuse for a Mother. (Term used VERY loosely in her case.). 

 

Hail. 

[twa]

She did notice the next day, that's gotta count for something. 

[Gamebreaker]

I don’t believe the parents. Whenever I go out in public, I’m basically checking what my kids are doing every 30 seconds. It’s automatic. It’s a habit. I cannot imagine even losing my son in the maze, because at 3 yrs old he would’ve been attached to my hip. Much less, actually getting in the car and not thinking I needed to fasten him in his car seat. Getting home and not thinking of getting him out of the car, a bath, and putting him to bed? Come on. They left him, and frankly I’d much rather the state found him a family that actually wanted instead of these assholes. 

 

I just think of all the married couples who can’t have children, and these mother****ers are leaving one in a corn maze. 

[Destino]

Drug abuse could explain this.  Other than that,I don't see how this is possible.  Raising small kids requires routine.  You have to put them to bed, which entails many steps.  You have to put them in the car seat.  They don't just do everything on their own.  How would you not notice all of these missing actions that you do literally everyday unless you're high or drunk?

[tshile]

1 minute ago, Destino said:

Drug abuse could explain this.  Other than that,I don't see how this is possible.

I originally thought, and posted, the same thing.

 

At the bottom of the article they seem to suggest she has 10 kids. Well, 11. They said she showed up to the police station with 10 kids. It also says two families live in the house, there's not any further clarification.

 

So I thought drugs too. But having 10 kids and being wholly irresponsible on a level thats unimaginable, even for someone like me who thinks the least of the average person, could also explain it.

[Larry]

9 minutes ago, tshile said:

I originally thought, and posted, the same thing.

 

At the bottom of the article they seem to suggest she has 10 kids. Well, 11. They said she showed up to the police station with 10 kids. It also says two families live in the house, there's not any further clarification.

 

So I thought drugs too. But having 10 kids and being wholly irresponsible on a level thats unimaginable, even for someone like me who thinks the least of the average person, could also explain it.

 

Which opens up another possible explanation.  

 

"I thought his brother put him in the car."  

 

(On an unrelated note, did the article mention if she lived in a shoe?)  

 

[twa]

if she has 11 kids the law of averages was bound to get her sooner or later.

[tshile]

When in groups we were assigned numbers and had to sound off before the bus would leave

 

Seems pretty simple

 

[zoony]

Props to that police officer and the samaratins who found the boy

[Llevron]

They never do this stuff by accident unless they are high as ****. Probably shouldn't have kids and get high as **** tho. Bad things could happen. 

[twa]

If you have 11 kids and ya get 10 home that is a pretty good average though.

Major leaguers would kill for that average.

[Riggo-toni]

If I were unlucky enough to have even one kid, I'd abandon him in a cornfield....

[LadySkinsFan]

The parents who  "forget" their child, whether in a corn maze, hot car, store, wherever, I think it's intentional. 

 

I always had my daughter in close visual contact. I used to be entirely nervous the whole time we did mall crawls when she was a young teen. Me and my then GF would walk the mall while my daughter and her friends would do the same. She was probably ducking out to smoke from time to time, we weren't allowed to acknowledge her if we spotted her, mostly because we were a Lesbian couple and she wasn't out to some of her friends. 

 

But I just can't see not being aware of where your child is at all times, especially a three year old. Poor kid.

[Llevron]

Yea. Had to be terrifying for the kid. 

[skinny21]

**** happens, but no noticing until the next day is all kinds of wrong.  Of course, I don't have 11 freakin' kids (man I hope some are adopted).  As soon as we had our 3rd, we were outnumbered and **** got real... cannot imagine having almost a cookie batch worth.  

 

Edit: oh, wait, multiple families?  Huh.  

[LadySkinsFan]

Outnumbered, the main reason my daughter is a singletary.

[Busch1724]

1 hour ago, skinny21 said:

Edit: oh, wait, multiple families?  Huh.  

 Would assume she has kids to another man prior and he has kids to another woman prior right? Maybe they have a couple of their own.

 

She must have some extra bacon left over at breakfast and realized one of the litter was missing. 

 

 

[SkinInsite]

Some people shouldn’t have kids, let alone 11.

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

I can understand it. Leave your kid in a corn maze. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern try to rob the corn maze. Hilarity ensues.

[Bang]

I for one applaud these folks for following through on the usual parent's threat.

I understand that in the past they have also given the kid something to cry about, and turned the car around so no one could go to Fun-land.

 

~Bang

[LD0506]

Y'all seem to be missing a salient point here, it's in Utah. Probably one of those polygamist things where her kids aren't all her kids, etc.

 

On an unrelated note, I'd have been thrilled to be left in a corn maze.