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The situation doesn't give me warm cuddly feelings, but I can also see how the mom legitimately didn't realize he was missing. I didn't get breaks from parenting so my kids were always with me and not at grandmas other relatives. Other families operate differently.
I think there were details left out of that article that might make this make more sense.
In this article below, the child has been reunited with the mother and no charges have been filed so far.
Sounds to me, like she went with a big group of people (other families, friends) and she became separated and then went home, expecting the others she was with apparently to still have her child and to bring him home.
Some families operate like that. Everyone participates in taking care of the kids, and it's less structured than other families who clearly divide up supervisory duties.
There was a girl in Galveston, Danarriah Finley, 3 years old, who went missing from her home and it took investigators an entire day to clear everyone who legitimately might have taken her from the home for an outing. Because that's how they operated. Sounds like this family in the corn maze might be the same.
It does seem lax, though. Shouldn't the mom at some point have verified that her preschooler was in good hands?
She didn't feel the need to know or verify which specific relative had the child? She assumed someone she knew would have him? Sorry, but this is negligence to me.
This is Utah. Very common to have lots of kids, close together, with the 5 yr old charged with responsibility for watching the 3 yr old. Lots of accidents to kids (think run over in the driveway or street) in this population. In addition, the article says that the family lived in a multifamily household. In Utah, that doesn't mean multigeneration - that means polygamist. If you've ever watched the Brown reality TV show, when they were all living in one house (and the father made much more money, and their standard of living was much higher than most polygamist households), that means incredibly crowded chaos. Easy to not notice that little Lehi is missing, when there are 18 kids living in the house!
Polygamist family. 14 kids. 11 at corn maze + some from sister (or is it sister wife). Official wife probably wasn't the real mother of this kid. Real mother may have been some poor traumatized (i.e. raped) child bride which is why no one noticed.
"The boy is back with his family and is fine, Robert told The Tribune on Thursday. Robert asked that his last name not be used. He has a plural family, but says that has nothing to do with why his son was mistakenly left behind.
Robert agreed to explain what happened on Monday evening at the Crazy Corn Maze, 8800 S. 4000 West.
For starters, there were a lot of children to keep track of, he said.
Robert and his wife have 14 children. She took 11 of them to the corn maze on the afternoon of Columbus Day. Her sister brought two or three of her own children, Robert said. The combined families were piled into multiple cars.
Between the two sets of kids, Robert said, there were “about four blond-haired boys about the same height.”
When it was time to leave, Robert said, his wife buckled the youngest children into car or booster seats, including the 3-year-old. Then the older children asked if they could have one of the free donuts someone was giving away at the maze.
Robert’s wife said, yes, and the older children got out of the car, he said. His wife waited in the car. There was a line for the donuts, and she waited 15 minutes.
She thought the 3-year-old was in the car with her.
“During that 15 minutes, he must have jumped out,” Robert said."
----------------------------
4 blond boys about the same height, so probably 4 different mothers.
How dumb are the Utah police that they believe the 3 year old got himself out of his car seat, opened the door and took off back into the corn maze while mom(s) sat waiting. The kid was left in the maze because there were too many children for the adults to keep track of.
The comments on the article are very entertaining.
I have a big family and this happens all the time. Parent tells a relative to watch their kid. Relative gets dostracted by something else. Kid wanders away. Parent comes back and asks: "Where's Johnny?" Relative: "Oh, $h!t!"
Except NO ONE asked where Johnny was for TWELVE HOURS. Yeah, that's a problem.
Polygamist family. 14 kids. 11 at corn maze + some from sister (or is it sister wife). Official wife probably wasn't the real mother of this kid. Real mother may have been some poor traumatized (i.e. raped) child bride which is why no one noticed.
"The boy is back with his family and is fine, Robert told The Tribune on Thursday. Robert asked that his last name not be used. He has a plural family, but says that has nothing to do with why his son was mistakenly left behind.
Robert agreed to explain what happened on Monday evening at the Crazy Corn Maze, 8800 S. 4000 West.
For starters, there were a lot of children to keep track of, he said.
Robert and his wife have 14 children. She took 11 of them to the corn maze on the afternoon of Columbus Day. Her sister brought two or three of her own children, Robert said. The combined families were piled into multiple cars.
Between the two sets of kids, Robert said, there were “about four blond-haired boys about the same height.”
When it was time to leave, Robert said, his wife buckled the youngest children into car or booster seats, including the 3-year-old. Then the older children asked if they could have one of the free donuts someone was giving away at the maze.
Robert’s wife said, yes, and the older children got out of the car, he said. His wife waited in the car. There was a line for the donuts, and she waited 15 minutes.
She thought the 3-year-old was in the car with her.
“During that 15 minutes, he must have jumped out,” Robert said."
----------------------------
4 blond boys about the same height, so probably 4 different mothers.
How dumb are the Utah police that they believe the 3 year old got himself out of his car seat, opened the door and took off back into the corn maze while mom(s) sat waiting. The kid was left in the maze because there were too many children for the adults to keep track of.
The comments on the article are very entertaining.
So Robert has more than a dozen kids and with all the intermingled intercestual goings-on they all look so much alike that you (they) can't even keep the kids straight? Because they're all probably within a couple years of each other with that many women to keep impregnated? I don't care about bunches of these people living together until neglect comes into play - then it becomes society's business to straighten the crap out and keep kids safe if the parents are incapable. Makes no difference to me if they were all drunk or all stoned or just plain overwhelmed - neglect is neglect.
I wonder if Robert knew the kid's name. Apparently the kid did not know his own name so likely isn't called by it very often. Sort of ties in with the fact that no one noticed he was missing.
"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."
Another article said "Monson said the mother arrived at the police station with about 10 children, according to the Associated Press."
I guess dad couldn't be bothered to come get the boy. Maybe he was worried he wouldn't recognize him. Just imagine him running up and hugging little Timmy, and then it turns out to be Johnny, the police chief's son.
Also according to the other article mom called Robert to tell him the child was not there. So obviously Robert never noticed at all.
"Robert says his wife called him in a such a panic, she could barely get the words out of her mouth.
Their 3-year-old son wasn’t home when she woke the other kids for school Tuesday morning, she told him. The police were on their way to the house to look for him."
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