Can People Get Stupid After Too Much Turkey?

The NY Daily News online is reporting that a pregnant lawyer in Valley Stream, on Long Island, left her toddler in her car seat and went shopping at Walmart for more than an hour. Really? Are you serious?

In an age when children aren’t safe walking to their school bus stops or even playing on their own front lawns, who in their right mind would leave their child in the backseat of a car while they went shopping??? Well, apparently, this chick thought it was just fine and dandy. Say what you will about New Yorkers, but thank goodness someone saw this child in the car and called police.    

A few years ago, a very good friend of mine had errands to run and of course she brought her small children with her. They were all strapped in in their car seats and they pulled into the neighborhood strip mall to return a movie. My friend stopped the car in front of the video store in the fire lane, left it running and ran the 10 feet to drop the movie in the outside movie drop-off. Still not the greatest move, but we’re talking 45 seconds and the car was within her sight the whole time. Talk about the guilt she felt after doing that. To this day she doesn’t know what possessed her to do that. Ok, so we can all agree that things like this do happen to even the most caring and protective of parents. Did she ever do it again? Not just no, but HELL no. Her children are grown now and I think she STILL wouldn’t leave them in the car.

But this chick on Long Island thought it was perfectly fine to park her car in a Walmart parking lot – not a fire lane in front of the store – and proceeded to spend at least an hour shopping. Not just run 10 feet with the car still within her sight.

If the Daily News had reported on something more like what my friend had done, I would have shaken my head and just chalked it up to a bad judgment call and went on about my business. But, the Daily News article made it quite clear that not only is this woman pregnant, but she’s also a lawyer! We all know that you can have all the book smarts in the world and it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans if you don’t have an ounce of common sense.

Parents find themselves in difficult situations regarding what to do with their children everyday. Being a parent is the hardest job in the world. I can say that and I’ve never had children. But deliberately endangering your child’s safety to grab a couple of Black Friday deals is reprehensible. There’s just no excuse.

Thankfully, a passerby saw the child and called 911. Burdened with her new purchases, Ms. Sulman was greeted by police officers and placed under arrest. Ultimately the child was released to the father’s custody.

Let’s hope this chick knows something about criminal and divorce law. She’s been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and faces up to a year in jail.