According to Floyd County Jail records:
Melissa Catherine Smith-Means, 37, of Gaylesville, Ala., was arrested by Rome police around 12:30 p.m. She was charged with felony first-degree cruelty to children.
Police say she was observed by customers and employees at a store on Broad Street, dragging a small child around by a backpack leash. The child had visible marks on the neck from the incident.
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There’s nothing like mother love.
It looks like fun to me. What’s the big deal?
On the other hand I also don’t doubt that this kid could have walked if she’d wanted to nor am I of the opinion that the child had any meaningful injuries.
I’d have stayed out of this one and them sorted it out.
Oh my! I see mothers around push, drag and shout at their young sons around alot around here. Treatment of children these days seems far worse than the occasional slap I used to get when I stepped out of line as a kid.
As a parent, I have always found mental cruelty much more damaging and rewarding. Why use fear when you can use dread?
And here’s another frontrunner for the award…
Passive resistance is the way young grasshopper. You will wear her down eventually.
Apparently the Alphie One School of Child Rearing doesn’t meet with everyone’s approval. Maybe the watchers could have kicked the child a few times on the way by.
Not to take the mother’s side, but it could be that the kid just layed on the ground and refused to move. If she’s not strong enough to carry him, and he refused to get up unless she agreed to buy him something, she wouldn’t have any choice but to drag him.
Child abuse must be stopped.
I’m thinking rotten kid, rotten mom. Some of each.
America’s love affair with arresting and jailing people is pathological — and costs a fortune, too.
Based on this video, this woman needs counseling on parenting skills… not arrest.
Arresting her and putting her kids in foster care may needlessly victimize the children.
Of course, a social worker should determine if the mother uses drugs (likely, considering the weird behavior) or more serious abuse.
If she’s an addict then treatment should be offered.
But jailing should be the LAST scenario, not the first.
My son can sometimes be pretty obnoxious on public places, but either me or my wife would die before performing such a spectacle…
we would, of course, take him to some place secluded, and bust his little knee caps…
It’s easy to make negative comments when you haven’t experienced a full parental meltdown. Kids sense when you’re most vulnerable to task you. I now refuse to baby sit. I have a dog, but if it annoys me too much I can shoot it.
#7, Improbus… that’s the strategy alright. 🙂
On a more sober note… some animals eat their young.
Ok, lets have fun..
jao:
I found a neet trick. kids learn HOW to push buttons.. I find as a stranger, I walk up to a BAWLING BRAT in a store and go BOO! and the kid SHUTS UP FAST, as they dont know me. and I have had a few mothers thank me.
First rule.(as with pets) dont say it unless you wish to follow thru with a threat.
threat= (kids buttons)(hard to find) Physical, mental, embarrassing??, a TASK they dont like, or a task that is difficult. finding something that you can DO in public and not Get taken to JAIL..
OK, fun part.
Look how fast the mother is walking. HOW fast can a child keep up? I would have looked for a piece of waxed cardboard or a Stroller or cart and placed them IN/ON it and pulled away.
she was BUSY and in a rush.
She DID IT WRONG. BUT…
1. you can leave a KID in a CAR ALONE.
2. YOU HAVE TO PAY BILLS
3. to many things happening at the SAME TIME and an upset kid.
How do you deal with LIFE when a kid wont help?
They do make lease and harness for young kids. I have see them a few times and they seem to work fairly well if you use them properly. Laying down like and refusing to get up fairly typical with a child who does not want to get up. Dragging them not such a good idea.
# 10 Yes child abuse and neglect needs to be curbed. Stopped implies you’re willing to kill everybody or you’re stupid. ?8^)
How ever if you have a working brain this kid was on strike. It had the option to walk, skip, or what have you and it refused.
You want to stick your nose in this you deserve to have to deal with the kid in person without a get out of jail card.
felony first-degree cruelty /// Wow, that sounds pretty heavy duty. Good thing the penalties of the law are proportionate with the offenses. If she hit the kid, I guess that would be “double” the above.
Then if she strapped the kid with a coat hanger, she could only be hanged, and burdied, then dug up and shot.
Ironic though that for the woman’s sins in the moronic treatment of her child, she will now be treated the same way by the State. Hope she takes the lesson to heart.
I still think it’s going to be hard to top the mother earlier this week who was snacking on the brains.
Do what my mom did walk away. Hide in plain sight, soon as the little monster figures out their “alone” she would have to pry it off her leg. Hell even works on my dog. But then again my parents, were parents, not breeding stock. Oh and they were qualified pick up truck driven, bass boat owning, redneck trailer trash, things like this give us bad names, cut it out.
Too bad… she created the monster.
The first time I saw a child on a leash, I hated the idea. I don’t like it any better nowadays. Still, if you’ve ever had a child, you immediately see the back story here: kid has a tantrum, mom says okay we’re going home, kid says no – lies on floor – mom says yes and proves she means it. Good parenting? No. Abuse? I doubt it.
Animby,
I tend to agree with you — as long as the floor was polished, and it seemed to be so.
My had a little concern the way she dragged him around the sharp corner and never even checked to see if he was OK.
Still, I think this is a case for a Social Worker, not jailers.
I would suspect either low IQ or drugs for such poor parenting style but you can’t be sure just from a video.
If it is simply low IQ, she would probably be very responsive to parenting class.
I dunno….seems to me a mix. Easy to jump to the conclusion that kid is probably a borderline idiot, and the mom, a full-blooded idiot. However, yeah, kids DO push buttons, and they do that tantrum thing, and then they go limp, so it’s near impossible top pick them up. You have two choices….so stand around and wait it out, or dig your fingernails into them and try and get them upright. Either way, everyone around you thinks its child abuse.
I’d say this mom had it up to her ears, and was mad as hell, and just wanted to get the kid out of public, and get whatever she needed to get done done. She was walking fast because she was mortified, and the kid had all the power. The people watching could have HELPED HER…but, nooooo…we’d rather be voyeurs and watch the spectacle. The person filming, the person calling the cops…should all have their head examined. Way to go society.
Arresting her for child abuse…is stupid.
Getting CPS and that nightmare into her life is horrid.
The problem is that nothing prepares you for motherhood, and the ideal of some happy child skipping next to you is not always the reality you end up with. In our over indulgent, loosely knit, lack of family support, everyone jumping to conclusions (abuse, abuse abuse!) …but no one using their heads. This woman was at her wits end…and EVERY parent (except absent and estranged ones) have been there….
Meet,
WOW, someone read my post..
Yes, I agree..
it takes EVERYONE to help to raise a child.
DONT STARE, dont POKE FUN.. HELP her.
You cant DEBATE with a child,
you cant TELL a child what to do,
you cant Explain, or ASK a child,
Logic has NOTHING to do with a child..
Child=I WANT+I NEED+ITS MINE AND NOT YOURS+WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE??
you have to TEACH them..
#26, meetsy,
I agree with the theme of your post. I disagree that the spectators should have gotten involved. That would have the detrimental effect of educating the kid that if he screams abuse whenever he feels like it, people will come running.
One thing I think you overlook about so many of the above comments, they were written by men who have little compulsion about controlling what a woman can do with her body.
I have a two year-old, and I get all of the melt-downs and fits which occur in the least-convenient places. I know better than to comment on someone else’s parenting techniques, but this is an suitable example. There is no reason, whatsoever, for dragging a kid through a store, even if you are leaving. If the child is having that bad of a fit, where you have to leave, then put down whatever you plan to buy, pick up the child and walk out. If the child is two heavy to pick up with both hands, you need to get stronger or have a lighter child.
This woman doesn’t need to be thrown in jail, she needs someone to say to her, “you can’t drag your kid through a store”…
#30,
“you can’t drag your kid through a store”…
Why not? It cleans and polishes at the same time. The store should encourage it.