Watch a Woman Explain How She Accidentally Left Her 2-Month-Old Baby in a Shopping Cart

Last week, 27-year-old Cherish Peterson took three of her four kids on a quick grocery store run . . . and accidentally left her 2-month-old son in the shopping cart before she got in her car and left.

It was a terrible mistake – one that's been documented time and again in disturbing news reports of kids dying in hot cars or parents not realizing for hours that they've left a child behind — and one that leaves onlookers wondering, "How could a mother ever forget her child?"

Thanks to a CBS News interview, this particular mom answers that question in heart-wrenching detail.

"I'm a good mom who made a horrible mistake," she admits, after the reporter notes that she has been portrayed as America's worst mother.

How she made such a mistake was, according to her, a perfect storm of unlikely scenarios — a shopping cart with a broken buckle that caused her to put her kids back into the car out of order, an out-of-the-ordinary bouquet purchase that covered up the car seat, and a parking spot so close to the entrance that she didn't have to wheel the cart back.

"I got into my car, and normally I put my cart away," said Peterson. "But I didn't need to because I parked at the front of the store and I never park there. And I drove away."

As she pulled into her garage 40 minutes later, she realized what she had done.

The baby boy — who was spotted almost immediately by an off-duty Phoenix, AZ, police officer — was not injured, but in the days that followed, Peterson faced not just Internet scrutiny and accusations of being a drug addict, but also potential child endangerment charges.

"There is nothing I love more in this world than being a mom," she said. "And there is no one in this world who could love my kids more than me."

Interestingly, many people have taken to social media with #IStandWithCherish to support the mom who, they believe, is no different than other parents who make mistakes but aren't forced to endure the public shaming and legal ramifications that come when they're given a global spotlight.

"A mistake was made, and we learned, but we're not perfect," her husband, Nathan Peterson, said during the interview. "We're not perfect. But we love our family and we love our children and we are grateful that everything is OK."