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.
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.