A New York woman was charged with child endangerment on Tuesday after alleged leaving her 4-year-old son tied to a bush unattended while she babysat other children in their building, WCBS-TV reports.

According to Spring Valley Police Chief Paul Modica, the boy did not want to go inside so 22-year-old Mery Isabel Quinde-Castro tied her son up “until she could get him into the apartment.” From The Journal News:

The boy was wearing a monkey backpack that had a 4-foot long leash. “The leash part was actually knotted around this bush so that the child just couldn’t walk away,” Modica said. “The child’s hands were free. He wasn’t attached at the waist. He was attached to the line on the backpack.”

Modica said witnesses told police the mother had left her son outside for more than a half-hour, though she claimed it was only 10 minutes. Detective Robert Bookstein said he calculated the apartment was about 200 feet from the bush and the mother could not see her son or hear him from inside.

Speaking to WABC-TV on Wednesday, Quinde-Castro defended her parenting, saying she is not a bad mother.

“If I was a bad mother, I wouldn’t love him,” she told the station. “I have to work in order to survive. I don’t want to take anything from the government.”

According to Social Services officials, the primary goal in endangerment cases like these is to help parents find safe supervision options for their children.

[Image via WCBS-TV]