We all know how frustrating potty training can be. It takes boatloads of patience and understanding. Who can blame a parent for losing their temper every once in a while? But you can definitely take it too far -- like the Dallas mother who glued her daughter's hands to the wall.
Let that humdinger sink in for a moment. The toddler's siblings say their mother glued her daughter's hands to the wall because of potty training problems. She also hit her and kicked her in the stomach. And after pleading guilty to injuring a child, the mom had the nerve to tell reporters, "Only God can judge me. That's all I gotta say."
Um, no honey. Not only can a jury of your peers judge you, I think pretty much every parent who has ever gone through potty training is going to judge you. You crossed a line we all work hard not to cross.
Many of us try hard not to judge other parents over the small stuff: Letting your kids have candy, occasional tantrums, too-old thumb suckers, formula feeding. There's a non-judgy parenting code that we try to stick with: Shut up, parenting is hard, give that lady pushing a 6-year-old in a stroller a break. (Seriously, I saw that the other day. Not judging! I was just surprised.)
But something like this comes along and we have to judge. Because there has to be a baseline of acceptable parenting that we can all agree on. It's one thing to have a bad day and yell when you don't need to yell. It's another thing to beat your child and glue her freakin' hands to the wall. That's not even going to help with the potty training! What purpose does that serve? It doesn't even make sense! How can you do something so crazy and then play the "no judgements, please" card?
This is me judging you, hand-gluing mom in Dallas. There's no excuse for that. It's child abuse. Thank goodness her children have been taken into custody.
Parents who feel themselves losing control of themselves around their children need to stop and get help. Run out of the house and call social services if you have to. But it shouldn't come to this.
Have you ever been so frustrated with your kids that you wanted to do something this crazy -- but didn't?
Image via lylamerle/Flickr
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Kanye West is Gay?! 
Comments 56
I have felt like I want to throw my kids into a wall, when they were babies and would not stop crying. I didnt. If you get that frustrated you put your children in a safe place and cool off. You never have to do that. There is no reason why you should hurt your kids.
re: 6 yo in stroller. i get judged about my 21 month old daughter just like im sure that mom was judged about her kid in the stroller. i carry or push my child in a cart or stroller everywhere because she has cerebral palsy and cant walk, but unless you "know" that, you cant tell that is why. it just looks like im lazy and dont want to let my kid walk and get into stuff. on things like that, know the story before you judge. but on the hand gluing mom, JUDGE AWAY! we moms who are trying to do our best and face struggles of child-life without resorting to violence or stupid crap like that have a RIGHT to judge that behavior!
of course i have gotten frustrated. of course i wanted to duct tape them down to the toilet. eeehhh its was a ideation at the time, that was never acted on. but i made it fun!!!! and it worked.