A Danish mother was reunited with her 14-month-old daughter four days after she sparked an international incident by leaving the girl outside a restaurant while she dined inside with the girl's father.
"From what I hear, everything went as smoothly as possible" when Annette Sorensen and daughter Liv were reunited at about 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Maggie Lear, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children's Services.Sorensen and the child's father, Exavier Wardlaw of New York City, were arrested Saturday on child-endangerment charges when they left Liv in her stroller outside a restaurant in Manhattan's East Village while they dined inside.
The arrest highlighted the differences between New York, where leaving your child unattended outside a restaurant is a crime, and Copenhagen, where the same act is standard procedure.
"To leave a child unattended for an hour on a city street in New York is pretty inappropriate," said ACS commissioner Nicholas Scop-pet-ta.
Danes in Copenhagen reacted with shock at the news, saying it is commonplace in their country to leave their children unattended but in view while they shop or dine.