by Carolyn Robertson posted in Parenting

A New Hampshire mom was arrested this week after she left her 2-year-old son unattended in the car in a Target parking lot.
Dina Dambaeva says that she was only popping into the store to return something, an errand she thought would take no more than five minutes. So she left the car with its engine running, little Matthew strapped happily in his car seat. Those five minutes ended up stretching into a half hour. Police arrived and placed Dina under arrest, charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
While Matthew didn't appear to be in distress, police explained, "Anytime you have child of that age, alone, and unattended, there is a ton of risks that can happen to them."
However, the 34-year-old mom insists that her son was "safe, he was fine, he was happy," adding, "I thought it was going to take five minutes, I didn't know it was going to take more. I'm not the worst mother in the world, I just did one tiny mistake, and people judge me for that." A local news station interviewed other parents at the shopping outlet that day, and there did seem to be some judgement being thrown Dina's way. "I would never leave my child in the car, no, there's no excuse," insisted one mom, while another said she'd worry about "someone breaking in and maybe abducting the child."

Dina does have some support, though: Lenore Skenazy, founder of the blog Free-Range Kids, is solidly in her corner. W...