A mom caused a TikTok scandal by saying she doesn’t always return her shopping cart at the grocery store in a viral video. “I’m not returning my shopping cart and you can judge me all you want,” Dr. Leslie Dobson, a clinical and forensic psychologist in California, said in a with 11 million views.
“I’m not getting my groceries into my car, getting my children into the car and then leaving them in the car to go return the cart. So, if you’re going to give me a dirty look, f--- off.” Many complained that Dobson was being inconsiderate to grocery store employees; others agreed with her.
Many people mentioned “the shopping cart theory,” an unofficial theory that people who don’t return their trolleys have poor character. Dobson tells that she posted the video “because predators watch our patterns and routines and I wanted to give people permission to not return their carts if their intuition tells them they aren’t safe.” In fact, stranger abduction is very, very rare.
According to an analysis of FBI data by Reuters, thousands of minors are reported missing each year and only .1% of those cases are the result of stranger abduction. FBI data shows that children are far more likely to be abducted or molested by a family member or someone known to the parents.
Dobson adds that leaving the kids alone in the car, even momentarily, is not something she will ever do. She says the tone of her video was intentionally provocative “to grab attention” for aware.
