Horrible

Our car is a Ford.  This means, it has a keypad on the outside that lets us type in a code and the doors either lock or unlock for us without keys.

**the brilliant thing about this is that I can leave the car running with my kids in it, but its still locked and I can get back in while I run to go check the mail.

**or so I thought.

Yesterday, I got a knock on the door.  It was a police officer.

He asked me if I'd been to the grocery store today.

**this is the same officer who found my wallet after I left it on top of my car at the gas station and drove off.  I thought the same thing had happened.

I told him yes.

He then asked me if I left my little boy in the car. 

Sick, horrible, feeling.

He then proceeds to tell me that I'm not allowed to do that and that's he's going to give me a citation and I'll have to go to court.

Cue more sick, horrible, feelings.  That terrible drop in the pit of your stomach.

I proceeded to tell him that I had left the car running and the doors were locked because of my wonderful keypad.  I didn't think that was the problem.  I thought the problem was parents leaving their kids in the car without it running.

**I feel sick and tears coming on just writing this.  Yuck.  Yuck.  Yuck.

He asked me for my drivers' license and then if I've ever been arrested.  I tell him no, and then he tells me he's going to go into his vehicle for a little while.  I just sat outside and sobbed. 

**my neighbor came out and asked me what was wrong.  I felt like such a dork.  I hate crying in front of people.  It's hard for me.  I'm not a crier by nature.

It felt like forever, but he finally came back, handed me back my license, and told me he wasn't going to give me a citation, that he thought I'd "learned my lesson".

**I think he felt bad, because the rest of the time he spent reassuring me that I was a good mom.  Hahahaha.  That was kind of awkward.