This article discusses the recent case of an 18-year-old mother in Reynoldsburg and her 2-year-old son. Earlier this month, she used Facebook Live to stream an incident in her home. The mother claims she was trying to clean but her son was in the way, so she taped him to the wall with shipping tape. In addition, she taped his mouth shut. Ultimately, she has been arrested and is awaiting trial.
I found this interesting for many reasons. In the video, she claimed “she doesn’t use physical abuse, she uses tape.” She also said it's her son and she could "hang him upside down if she wanted to." This reminded me somewhat of our debate in class the other day about spanking. What one person sees as abuse and going too far, others don’t. But does that matter? Does an intent to harm matter? If abuse is abuse, then it wouldn’t. But, as usual, opinions and beliefs differ. It seems she believed that since he is her son, she could treat him however she wished.
Also, unfortunately, this child is currently in foster care. Although I am not in the field of child welfare, I was under the impression CPS usually attempts to place a child in kinship care, if possible. If I’m correct, then this may mean the child has no family available to take him in. Ultimately, what is going to happen to him? How scary must that be for him - to be abused by his mother and then taken into foster care. I’m curious how long he will stay in the foster care system. Also, if there is no family to take him in, I would be interested to know if the mother had much social support, and if that has had an impact on her actions at all.
Lastly, what role does social media play in the area of child welfare? If she hadn't live streamed that, would anyone have ever known? Would she have ever been reported? I'd be curious to know if more parents are reported to CPS due to incidents like this on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.
You raise so many good questions about this case, Emma. When I initally saw this story and video, I was honestly appalled at the mother's behavior. But when I started thinking in a different mindset, I was also thinking about what her idea of discipline is and that she clearly didn't see any harm in what she was doing. On the other hand, I saw everything she was doing as being wrong. This is a good reminder that as social workers, we need to constantly be aware of subjective and objective situations/cases that we will no doubt find ourselves in.
ReplyDeleteI tend to believe this woman when she says she didn't know any better because I know that there are communities in which future and current parents aren't taught any better. While none of us are necessarily ever completely ready to become parents, many of us are blessed with role models and/or common sense that tells us how to better address when a child is impeding something. I would love to see our child welfare systems empowered to become more proactive than reactive in terms of ensuring that all parents have the adequate knowledge and support to raise happy, healthy children.
ReplyDeleteYou also raise an interesting point about the role of social media. Just as social media has played a vital role in highlighting police brutality against people of color, it should be used (responsibly and reasonably) as a tool to protect children who might otherwise slip the cracks (and not as a tool to punish people we don't like or as a stick in rancorous child custody proceedings). I don't know whether this mother should go to the jail but I do think she needs more parenting education and support. Perhaps the live stream will have ultimately done a service to both her and her child. (Or at least I hope so.)
I recall hearing about this on the radio and just being so blown away that this would be ones form of discipline, but quickly made myself look on the flip side her saying she didn't think that was wrong. If her statement is true, then I feel the system is also failing the youth by not educating parents, especially young parents, on healthy ways of discipline/dealing with stress/parenting, and making them aware of the supports that are available to them. I think you bring up some very valid and interesting questions, and I feel that the use of social media probably does come along with an increase of cps calls, as people are more open and willing to just post whatever, or click a button and go live. I would be curious to see actual numbers from before spikes in social media uses for Facebook etc to calls now- but trying to determine whether or not that actually caused the difference would be difficult.
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