It's definitely not the worst thing anybody has done to their kids. It's pretty mild, actually. These were 10 and 12 year olds, not 3 and 4 year olds. At 12, you're in 6th or 7th grade and old enough to know you should shut up when you're mom is getting to the end of her rope. At 12, you hang out at the mall with your friends, go to the movies without parents accompanying, come home to an empty house every day after school. 12 is old enough to babysit other kids. 10 is kind of young, but still old enough to know that you should shut up when your mom is near the end of her rope.

I would do this, and I would start to drive away, but then stop and make them get back in the car. I often threaten that I'm going to split the kids up so that when one is with me, the other is with dad and vice versa. That freaks them out and makes them behave for a while. I surely don't think that this one incident would warrant on contact with your kids, especially since I've seen kids who were getting the hell beaten out of them regularly have to stay in the home.

And yes, I'd wager that both girls own cell phones whether they had them with them at the time or not.

They should have learned to listen to their mother and know that she's not all talk and no action. They should realize that they are lucky to have a parent who is caring and behaving themselves is not much for their mom to ask in return.

Also, they lived like 3 miles from where the kids were let out. Driving the mom could get home in 3-5 minutes. My guess is that the mom expected both of them to catch up to her together and when they didnt she was alarmed. She may have gone back to the drop off spot to check or not. It makes sense to go home and call the cops if you live 3-5 minutes away and your kid is missing. You drop the 12 year old off at home call the cops and then proceed to search for the 10 year old.

Unfortunately, they've learned that their mother is a hothead who, when faced with the same squabbles that virtually every other parent on this planet faces, risked her children's well-being--and her own career, I might add, to prove a point.

Also, she dropped them off in downtown White Plains. Although it's a pretty well-off town, downtown White Plains is home to a lot of major businesses. There are all sorts of people out there during the day. Anyone could have been there to pick that kid up. How close they were to home isn't an issue either--just look at the high percentage of kids who are abducted and killed within blocks of their homes. She's lucky that someone with only the best intentions got to her daughter before a pedophile or other creep!

I find this hilarious. Bet they stop fighting next time. :p

Downtown White Plains? A 3-mile walk?

How could children ever recover from such a harrowing experience?

Also, I'm no child psychologist, but doesn't the "fake-leave" only reinforce in children that Mom's threats are hollow, kind of like the "fake-grounding" and the "fake-no dinner" moves that are widely panned?

You haven't met my parents....hehe.

I'm sorry but I applaude the mother. She was able to show her kids that she meant business.
With some of these children now a days, they have gotten everything or nearly everything that they want and they haven't learned how to value things, like getting a car ride home.
I remember having to walk home from school (1 mile) as well as walking to school when I ws 12 and 11 years old. I had to get to ballet class in the 4th and 5th grade by walking 1 mile to the bus stop, then going to class (around 5pm) and then catching the bus that would take me into Pasadena and wait for my mom to pick me up at the bus stop (around 6:30pm). Hell, at 12, believe me, that kid knew she was pissing off her mother, she knew that she needed to shut up and she knew that she needed to sit her ass down and calm herself down. No, what did she do, she continued to act a fool in the car, squabble with her sister, and drive her mother nuts.
How many times does the Mom have to tell you to shut the f$#%#@ $% up before you get it?
They don't allow the parents to actively discipline the children today and wonder why some children act silly. Then they give them the dx of Autism or ADHD or something else that could easily be solved with a good ass whipping. Sorry, I don't feel bad for this mother, I feel that she did what was right. She was giving the children what they did need, discipline.

If the mother had enforced what she said 8-10 years ago, she wouldn't have had the problems she has now. My mother (winner of the iron hand in the velvet glove award for several consecutive years) would not have done that, but she most certainly would have pulled the car over and demanded silence before continuing. These little darlings will probably need psychiatric care and/or try to emancipate themselves at any time now. :rolleyes:

Or better yet, told thenm before they went out the door, "Act like you got some dayum sense and don't embrrass me."

My mom is a certified spankologist

I just want to add that I live around the corner from her and our kids play together...This was a disgusting act, but her kids are baaaaaaaadddd!!!! Disrespectful and totally out of control!

Kids don't become "totally out of control" over night. Put the fear of Mom in them when they are little and you will be ok in the end. Ask lilnikki: all Mommy has to do is drop her voice, and things get done.

DS: my mom is a certified spankologist as well. :) :D Hence, why I've never been to jail or been put out of a car. B/c M. Butler WOULD do that. And drive off.

My mother was definetly a certified spankologist as well.
Honeychile, you are correct, the need for discipline began years ago. This mother should have KNOWN how to control her kids, but then that would have meant that she would have to pay attention to her children to begin with.

I'm not going to try to defend this woman's actions, but I think it's a bit judgmental for anyone who doesn't personally know her to accuse her of not paying attention to her kids.

Discipline
 

Discipline must begin right away in a loving way. It must happen immediately so a small child attaches consequences to his behavior. My mother had the "look". I would rather she had beaten me than to get that look that said, "I am so disappointed in you." I tried the look on my boys and they fell on the floor laughing!

Anyway, the disappearing mom put both her daughters in danger, even three miles from her home. Predators travel to nice neighborhoods all the time. She could have separated the girls, moving the older one to the front seat. She could have used a reward system for good behavior. Abandoning them will do nothing for the girls, except make them afraid of their weird mother.

That will be $.02!

Paula M
Sigma Delta Tau
Patrae Multi Spes Una
One hope of Many People

When my step team was driving back from a competition and the coach pulled over and put a girl out of the van. She was around 15 and was being a brat to the nth degree. The coach just drove around the block and came back and we all had a good laugh, but I'm sure I know what parents everywhere would say about putting a girl out on the street in an unfamiliar city at 10-something at night. I guess you can say I understand both sides. But that incident made me laugh and so does this one. :shrug: