With all of the violence and rudeness in today's world, parents should be teaching their kids how to behave and treat each other with respect. But one mother instead decided to teach her toddler, who appears to be around 3 years old, to throw punches like a boxer -- at another toddler. The woman, who remains unidentified because no charges have yet been filed, videotaped two young toddler girls fighting while she shouted encouragements like, "Got some action!" and "Y'all better ball up some fists!" The toddlers scream hysterically while slamming their little fists into each other. You can probably guess what happened next -- the woman posted the video to Facebook.
After posting the video, one of her friends saw it and sent the video to a local television station, KTVI, in St. Louis, Missouri. Said the woman, "In the black community ... it's really sickening that these kids are learning how to fight, getting guns and stuff ... it shouldn't be going on." She added that she hoped the child was taken away from her mother until she can "better herself."
The TV station handed the video over to child welfare officials, but they would not say if the mother is being investigated. In the video, she is laughing in the background and seems to think there's nothing wrong with what she's doing -- which would explain sharing it with her pals on Facebook. The friend who handed the tape over to the TV station said she thinks the mom is "training" her daughter for school.
Maybe the mother thought she should teach her daughter some fisticuffs for daycare. Or in case she got a bully in kindergarten, she'd be prepared. I'm not excusing the situation, what she is doing is teaching these kids to be violent. Not to mention that the girls could have seriously injured each other. Plus, kids aren't roosters to be put into a ring to fight it out for adult entertainment. In fact, that shouldn't be done to roosters either!
But I don't think the mother thought she was doing anything wrong. Maybe the kids had been fighting previously and she wrongly imagined encouraging them was funny and would get it out of their system. Who knows. The tragic fact is what she is teaching these young toddlers is probably what she was taught herself.
Here is the video of the toddlers fighting. Be warned it's disturbing.
Do you think this mother needs to go to jail -- or needs counseling? Or both?
Image via KTVI
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Comments 59
First of all, in an article about an African American woman, don't use the words "animal" or "savages" to describe her. That's just racist and offensive.
What this woman did is awful, and difficult to understand. Remember, the children involved were THREE. A three year old does NOT understand intent, and can't tell whether someone hurt you by accident or on purpose.
As a preschool teacher, I find it frustrating when my students tell me "if someone hits me, I'm supposed to hit back." With four year olds, it often happes that one child accidentally pushes or kicks another. If their parents teach them to hit back, then the child who has been hurt starts punching. The first child is bewildered and angry and punches back, and then you've got two kids who are out of control, with both hurt feelings and hurt bodies. Everything is worse.
I teach my students that if they hurt someone by accident, they should say, "I'm sorry! It was an accident. Are you okay?" When they do that, the child who has been hurt usually says "yeah, I'm okay" and that's the end. If they say they are not okay, the first child usually hugs them or says something comforting. Both children are calm, and there is no fight. Everything is better.
Here's the thing: while I DO NOT condone the fact that these toddlers were pitted against each other, (that seems like a good way to teach a child to solve problems with his fists before his head), I can't condemn the activity in it's entirety. My SO (a former boxer) has played with my three year old daughter, doing drills, and teaching her how to throw a punch. That doesn't mean I allow her to hit in anger! But boxing, martial arts... there are plenty of potentially violent sports that do start their training with children as young as three. I have to concede the possibility that maybe this woman thought she was teaching something of value to these children. She absolutely went about it in an ass-backwards, unforgiveably wrong kind of way...but at the same time, I just wonder if this is the reality of the neighborhood these people are from.
First of all, in an article about an African American woman, don't use the words "animal" or "savages" to describe her. That's just racist and offensive.<----- If the "mom" was purple blue pink tan wtf ever color Id still call her an animal or savage. Who give a shit she is black she is making 2 toddlers fight for entertainment. No I wouldnt call her black but n****r is more like it. There is a differnce between blacks and n****rs. A black person is still a person and acts cival, the other is well liek the so called mom in this video no concern for any living being but her own.
I cant even finish reading these comments. Putting your child in a proffesional and safe enviornment to learn self defense is A Lot different than what this woman did. And Im sorry, but in my opinion, at these girls' age, it shouldnt be up to them to defend themselves from bullies or predators and such. That is the job of the Parents! At their age, karate, wrestleling and such should be seen as sports, or like activities. At 3 years old, no child should have to feel like its up to them to defend themselves in such an extreme way. They should know they have their parents to rely on for that. Yeah, teach them safety, but hell, this is a whole different thing. If this was a matter of teahcing them self defense to these girls, she went about it All wrong. She seemed to be treating it as a big joke or entertainment, rather than being serious about it and genuinly trying to instruct them. This woman Deserves some serious consequences, and if I was that other child's mother, that woman would be the one in dire need of self defense training and a damn good lawyer!!
My sister and I used to beat each other up with those pool noodles and my mom took them away when it got to "heavy" but I can't imagine just boxing my little sister at any age. Sure we got into fights and once or twice my dad didn't react as fast as he might have bc honestly my sister probably needed to learn not to take anything so far that you get hit (she had a habit of pushing me as far as she could till I would hit her and then running and telling. My dad promised one day he wouldn't be there to save her when her mouth wrote a check her fanny couldn't catch) but I still got in trouble! You don't hit people it's like the simplest thing in parenting!
kiri8 and Alleah you are like two sides of the same coin. Either it's offensive to call some one something or it's not. If it's offends you to dehumanize black people, then it should offend you to use nonhuman terms for all women. If it's not okay to call some one the N word (new flash it's not) then it's not okay. I can't believe either of you.
And we wonder why our society is so violent? Are you kidding me? This is disgusting and perverse!
and people wonder why children get bullied this is another reason why they do.