Let's not be too hasty to criticize the mother. Maybe she's just a lousy parent, but maybe not. She says one of the girls has "emotional problems". Again, sometimes such claims are just an excuse for lousy parenting, but they can also describe severe disorders which can make a child uncontrollable. Some very dedicated parents make every effort to keep such children at home with their families, instead of institutionalizing them, and unfortunately in some cases that turns out to be a mistake, and someone else in the family gets seriously injured or killed. Maybe this is a mother who has to deal with something like this, and was really scared her other child was going to be seriously hurt. If so, calling 911 was perfectly appropriate.
Another FReeper (who has a mildly autistic child of her own) has occasionally mentioned the experience of a friend of hers, who felt obligated as a parent to keep her severely autistic son out of an institution. The family took all sorts of security measures, including locking the boy in his room at night when there was no one else awake to supervise him. But as the boy got older/larger/stronger, things got more and more difficult until one day, in a sudden violent outburst, he lashed out a younger sibling, causing a serious head injury and permanent vision damage.
Parents of children with serious mental disorders have a tough road in life, and often have real reason to be in fear for themselves or other family members. They live with a level of constant stress that most of us can't even imagine. Let's give this woman the benefit of the doubt, since we really don't know anything about the severity of her daughter's "emotional problems".
Thank you for a well-written, intelligent post. Parenting "normal" kids is a often a tough job, even more so with a child with mental health problems.
"I heard this call this morning on a Dallas talk show. You can hear the mother giggling at first and then the dispatcher makes his comment"
I personally didn't hear the call but if the mother was giggling, it just doesn't sound too serious.
By calling the cops she was defining this to be a situation in which someone might get shot.
The dispatcher was, in an oblique way, trying to make her aware that calling the cops has consequences for all involved, and deadly consequences are a distinct possiblity.
Suppose the cops came and the girl came at them with a knife and they blew here away, as would be their right?
Then this idiot woman would be shrieking about how the police overreacted.
I do agree with your post, but i don't think that was the case in this instance. It would seem (I've never had to watch or care for children with special needs) that if the child really needed special attention the mother would have known who to call. Even if she didn't, I would have thought she would have handled it different something like"
"Hello 911"
"Yes, my son is breaking stuff and punching holes int he wall. He has (enter mental disorder of choice) and normally doesn't act this way, I need some help"
Bang, no joke, proper authorities are on their way.
Just the circumstances in the article as well as the reactions of the mother seem to point that she doesn't have a special needs child.
It's a tough situation.
My daughter had severe emotional problems all her life as her bio dad knocked me down a flight of stairs when I was 6 months pregnant. She killed a cat when she was 2, she was accused of molesting a 4 y/o boy when she was 7, she threatened to stab my husband and I to death in our sleep when she was 12. She was beating the heck out of us on a regular basis and of course, we were the ones that got accused of abuse even though we had done nothing but defend ourselves, and she had been in therapy most of her life. We attended family therapy, parenting classes...you name it, we jumped through the hoops. We dealt with CPS for 2 years. They even forced us into outpatient rehab and drug tested us because we admitted that we drank 3 beers/night...they classified us as alcoholics because of that. Worst part was, they placed her with a foster mother who took her to bars and was a prescription drug addict. One day out of the blue, the woman called me and told me to come get her.
The final straw for us was when she was 14 y/o...she slammed me up against the refrigerator and knocked me unconscious because I would not let her go out with a 21 y/o guy, she was 2 inches taller than me and outweighed me by 50 lbs. at the time My husband pulled her arms behind her back, pulled her off of me and put her outside and locked the door, otherwise she probably would have killed me. She tried to break down the door so we called 911. She assaulted the cop and he had to cuff her and stuff her in the car.
My husband then got accused of child abuse for pulling her arms back behind her and because she was fighting him so badly that she hit her head on the door frame. They charged me with medical neglect even though I had paperwork showing that I had spent $26,000 during the previous 6 months when I had committed her to a mental hospital. What it amounted to was that when my insurance "capped out" and she was declared "miraculously cured" by the doctors at the commercial clinic and I then forced them to commit her to the state hospital and she stayed there 3 months. Child Protective Services took custody of her again and then called me a few days later and wanted me to bring her back home. I told them no, so then they charged me with abandonment. She "aged out" of the system at 18 and they literally threw her on the streets. She is now 24, has spent the last year in prison for burglarizing my house and stealing a car. She is in recovery for meth addiction and so far has been doing well. Her favorite saying is "my mother was great, my stepdad was great...I was just a s**thead".
To those posters that said that they would "teach them a lesson"...beware of Child Protective Services. They get money for each child they take out of a home and they will lie to justify their existence. Been there, done that.
If I'd read one tiny hint in the article that the mother had first tried and failed to separate the girls herself, and was in fear of HER life or safety, I *might* cut her some slack.
But this woman now wants a man's head on a platter for telling a joke, so unless I hear a truly stunning tale of woe, I *probably* won't change my mind.
Her anger is seiously misplaced and she should have gotten over it by now. She got her damned service, didn't she?