No one disagrees Sloan Petersen did a terrible thing keeping Nicole’s baby away from her and passing little Jude off as her and Eric’s adopted son on Days of our Lives.
Sloan should be arrested for her crime and she should be punished to the full extent of the law. Or, as much as any other Salem criminal. Which, you know, is not at all. But, none of that changes the fact that DAYS engaged in some serious mom shaming and panic-mongering when it came to Jude’s “kidnapping.”
Days of our Lives: Stranger Danger
For 40 years now, American parents have been deliberately terrorized by the media into believing their child could be kidnapped at any time, if they so much as take their eyes off of them for one second. Everything is dangerous and risky, and parents must be on the alert at all times, as should children.
In reality, while 840,000 children are reported missing each year, 95% of those are runaways. The vast majority of the rest are taken by a non-custodial parent, a relative, or someone known to the child. Literally 0.1 percent of those kidnapped are taken by a stranger. The odds are very, very, very much on the parents’ side that their child will not be abducted by a stranger.
In point of fact, Jude was not abducted by a stranger. He was taken by his biological mother who, in either case, was definitely someone known to the parents.
Pointing the Finger At Sloan Petersen
And yet, both Eric (Greg Vaughan) and Nicole (Arianne Zucker) made the point that if she hadn’t taken little Jude, a horrible, terrible, stranger kidnapper would have likely done so. This is NOT TRUE. And, it needlessly scares new parents, not to mention shames moms who are not thinking about their children every minute of every day.
In most other places in the world, it is perfectly normal to leave a stroller outside with a sleeping baby in it. Sloan was raised in England, wasn’t she? So, she’s used to it. Sloan (Jessica Serfaty) may be a kidnapper and a criminal, a schemer, a scammer, and an all-around baddie, but she’s not a bad mother.
Days of our Lives airs weekdays on Peacock+ in the U.S. and The W Network or Global TV App in Canada. For more about what’s coming up in Salem, check out all the latest DAYS
