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Last year Catalina Clouser did something stupid and dangerous. The Arizona mother endangered the life of her child when she left her 5-week old infant in a car seat on the roof of her car ... and then drove off. The car seat fell off -- and, thankfully, the baby was found alive and well in the middle of an intersection. Yes, the MIDDLE OF AN INTERSECTION. Yup, this was a great big mom fail. One that she was arrested for. Not only did she endanger her child, but did so when she was reportedly high. She had allegedly been smoking pot, which any layperson can assume would contribute to this really, really poor judgment on Clouser’s part.
This week, Clouser pleaded guilty to child abuse and misdemeanor DUI.
I, for one, am glad to hear that she is owning her parenting misconduct. When faced with jail time (Clouser won’t be sentenced until March 26), many plead innocent with hopes of escaping any kind of punishment. But when you know you messed up, the best thing you can do is to just admit it.
Now, it would be totally easy to brand Clouser a loser -- but we, as parents, all make mistakes, whether under the influence or not.
Once, years ago, I accidentally did not strap my then 2-year-old daughter into her stroller. As we hit a curb on our morning walk, she flew out and scraped her face. I felt horrible. Worse than horrible. I felt like the worst mother ever. But in that one moment, I spaced on buckling her in. I was not high, I was not drunk. I was just a frazzled mother probably in the midst of multitasking.
We don’t know about the rest of Clouser’s parenting. We all make mistakes, and it's refreshing that she admitted it by pleading guilty. If only we all owned up to our mistakes and our errors in judgment (and then learned from them), the world would be a better place.
What was your biggest parenting FAIL?
Image via Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
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