NOT to think this woman should be "mom of the year"?

[ender]

Washington Post link
She was upset and angry and lost control, perhaps understandable under the circumstances. But no reason to repeatedly beat her 16 yr old son round the head. It looked like he would have gone home with her without all that.

I probably would have done the same in her situation. She was saving him from serious danger.

I don't think anyone who lives in a context like this can bring their kids up 'not to riot'. A lot of it will end up being down to greater reinforcement from peers than home coupled with individual temperament and choice. Parenting is really of minimal influence in terms of these choices when you're living in such extremes.

ofafrenchmind, the people you call rioters I call concerned and frightened citizens (yes, even though they are black!). as for police hurt or killed, I really don't care. they enjoy themselves at the expense of the black community, day in, day out. the police precipitated this action by murdering a black man. they severed his spine and waited 45 minutes before getting medical help for him. it is all the police's fault.

Better to be walloped by a terrified and furious mum than dead.

I would have reacted in the same way. What else could she have done, told him he was banned from his Xbox for a month ?

If I'd seen my DD do that stuff, I'd drag her home by her ear and give her the bollocking of a life time.

As I understood it,she had already tried the softly softly approach and told him not to go. It obviously didn't work and that's when she did what she felt she had to do to get him home.

There are so many parents out there who don't give a rats arse what their teenager get up to that I'd applaud a parent who did take a stand and did something.

Op, please tell us what you you would have done in her situation ?

I don't like that meme dragon. implying that he was lootin'? really? not funny at all.

And the police commissioner quoted as saying his mom was embarrassed by his behaviour. No, I'd say fearful of what may happen to him.

The only way to get things to change is for people to stand against the injustice; demonstrate, riot, draw attention to it. But no, I wouldn't want one of my children amongst it, with the trigger happy police that seem to inhabit this place. (live in texas)

I'd smack my kid in the head and shout at him too if the alternative is him getting involved in something that is likely to get him killed.

Sometimes a smack in the head is exactly the right thing.

No, I certainly don't see anything funny in it. It's a desperate mother, in a terrifying situation.

And op, I don't think she gives a shiny shit about any 'mother of the year' accolades

Totally different to a mum smacking a toddler for wrecking his toys.
This strapping teenager is much stronger physically than she is and was heading into a situation that could have got him killed, or a long jail sentence in a horrific US jail.

The naughty step wouldn't have worked - he needed to be shocked enough to break him out of his understandable outrage at police racism.

New York Times illustrates the danger he was in, masked heading for a riot:
[[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/20/upshot/missing-black-men.html?_r=1&abt=0002&abg=0
1.5 milion missing black men]] because of early deaths or because they are behind bars (600,000 extra proportionally compared to whites)
In the 24-54 age group, there are only 83 African-American males (outside jail) to every 100 black females, whereas there are 99 white males to 100 white females.

Out of all the things you could judge her poorly on you chose that she was aggressive towards her rioting son?

How about her parenting being so poor that her son is out on the streets rioting in the first place?

Or the other details that have come out about her personal circumstances that assuredly demonstrate a lack of parental responsibility (6 kids, no dads)?

The smacking her delinquent son around the head to prevent his descent into criminality is about the only thing she has got right.

Or the other details that have come out about her personal circumstances that assuredly demonstrate a lack of parental responsibility (6 kids, no dads

MIRACLE ALERT! she had 6 babies with no dad?! amazing.

How is that her poor parenting? what about the childrens Dads.

Those saying 'Mom of the year' are mostly missing the point, she did it so that he would not end up dead, killed by the police as Freddie Gray was, she actually said that in an interview I saw yesterday.

I think this article tells you a little more about the riots in Baltimore m.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/how-baltimore-riots-began-mondawmin-purge

Yes op, why judge her on that when scatter could have judged her so much more thoroughly?

Every day I see the news, whether it's civil unrest in the U.S., migrants dying making their way to Europe or the natural disasters around the world, I feel so blessed and lucky to have been born where I was

Wow, interesting article - certainly shows things in a different light! (and rather puts Scattergood's nose out of joint, or should anyway)

Anyone who criticises this woman for her actions has no idea of the reality of the daily life these people face. He son could have been the next statistic, a whooping from his mother caught on camera is the least of his worries.

If she had 6 kids with no dad , it's not the mother of the year award she deserves

It's the Nobel prize for medical research

Having read that later article posted by Awadebumbo, this comment from the Mayor in the Washington Post reads rather differently:

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said late Monday that the day’s violence was the result of “thugs who always want to incite violence and destroy our city. Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who, in a very senseless way, are trying to tear down what so many have fought for.”

Yes. Except it would appear that the thugs in this scenario were the riot police.

Hmmm. Interesting cultural aspect has just reared its head - on further reading, it appears that "thug" is now being used to talk about troublesome black people almost exclusively. How unpleasant - America is really going backwards.

I think I read that she works in a drug rehab place and they were very upset when someone was shot outside their home last summer. They live 10 minutes away from where Freddie Gray was arrested.

the police precipitated this action by murdering a black man. they severed his spine and waited 45 minutes before getting medical help for him. it is all the police's fault

she did it so that he would not end up dead, killed by the police as Freddie Gray was

It would be interesting to hear how posters know these things and are able to state them so positively - not believe, but actually know