Mum hit children because they splashed bathwater on the floor

[awisha.]

Here's a news story for the crazy, you can't make this stuff up files...

(This is the area we live in)

 

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2012/09/27/352186_news.html

 

:glare:

[umsami]

My guess is this is a lot more common than ever gets reported. I'm actually glad she did this (and not something worse...and was caught... so that she can get the help she needed.

 

Parenting is so tough. Many parents are single parents (either truly single, or with an absent partner (either physically or in terms of hands-on parenting). Not everybody has back-up, baby sitters, support, or even friends. I've been on quite a few parenting boards where people bemoan the fact that they don't have one real in person friend. We all need breaks--even if we have the best kids on the planet. Part of the reason I joined the YMCA (and now finally exercise on a regular basis) is the 1.5 hours per day of free child care I get as long as I'm working out.

 

I hope many people in the community reach out to not only help this Mom and her kids, but others who may be in similar situations.

 

Saw a great quote yesterday. (Note: I don't think this Mom was being a good mother.)

 

"There is no perfect way to be a great mother.

 

Each situation is unique.

 

Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and

certainly different children...

 

What matters is that a mother loves her children."

 

-Elder M. Russell Ballard

Edited September 28, 2012 by umsami

[Rai B.]

I would think keeping a wooden stick on the dresser is a little…prepared for the "stressed mum" bit in the headline. I am glad the kids got to know that someone told the mother that was not okay.

[LibraryLover]

I would think keeping a wooden stick on the dresser is a little…prepared for the "stressed mum" bit in the headline. I am glad the kids got to know that someone told the mother that was not okay.

 

I've raised 4 children, and I have never hit them with a stick. (Or even with my hand, but I know people are niot interested in that. )

[Sara in AZ]

We have wooden dowels in most of our windows, and the kids are always getting them and using them as play swords, etc. I often find myself seizing them and stashing them up high somewhere like the top of my dresser. I've never hit anyone with them, but there could be a perfectly innocuous reason why this mom had a stick on her dresser. I've also done my share of nagging about bath water all over the floor. Sometimes it's the little things that push you over the edge. Not that I'm condoning using physical violence when you get to that place, but I have compassion for stressed out moms.

[SKL]

I would think keeping a wooden stick on the dresser is a little…prepared for the "stressed mum" bit in the headline. I am glad the kids got to know that someone told the mother that was not okay.

 

When I was a kid, my dad had a stick on which was written "Board of Education," and it was a pretty effective Board in the rare instance when a meeting was called. :) Of course "times were different then." The teachers all had paddles on display in the front of their classrooms, too (and they were used). Most had holes so they wouldn't get too much wind resistance. One of our teachers actually had his name engraved on his.

 

As for bathwater, I don't think I've ever spanked for it, but I've probably hollered pretty loud. There's something about giving the same (ignored) admonition 600 times that just does that to a person.

 

ETA: Of course I don't believe in ever hitting enough to leave bruises like that. My dad didn't, either.

[Spy Car]

Perhaps the mother hit those children with a stick because she was training them to be better behaved? :rolleyes:

 

Bill

[TravelingChris]

I am glad she is getting help and I think it probably was stress, rather than a normal thing. After all, if the kids were getting beat all the time, they probably would have said so since they were the ones bringing it up at school. Also, they seemed very disturbed by it which wouldn't be true if this was a very regular behavior.

[Corraleno]

Maybe they were the "kind of kids who just don't listen to reason" so she had no choice but to hit them. :rolleyes:

 

The mom's big mistake was leaving bruises — apparently, as long as you don't leave a mark, it doesn't "count."

 

Jackie

[LibraryLover]

Splashing soapy water on the bathroom floor here means a clean floor. A big bath or beach towel makes it all better.

 

If it's so much that it leaks to the floor beneath, supervision is needed. Ditto if the children are young. Little kids alone in a tub can be dangerous.