3 year old smoker

A 3 year old smoker?

Archie McPhee; $6

Thought you didn't have to worry about your kids smoking until the teen years, huh? In a CNN.com story out of Britain, a 24-year-old mother was given a suspended sentence for child cruelty after her 3-year-old was taped smoking a cigarette in front of her!

According to the English prosecutor of the case: "The video demonstrates the boy placing a cigarette into his mouth, lighting it with a lighter and sucking, drawing smoke clearly into the lungs, and he seems to do it with some accomplishment."

In America, that translates into: This is not the first time, he's done it before, and he likes it! A concerned neighbor took the video on her cell phone and passed it on to authorities. The mother, Kelly Marie Pocock, was told she would ordinarily have been given jail time for the offense.

But the judge felt taking Pocock away from her child would cause even more harm, so he awared a suspended sentence instead.

Was that a good move on the judge's part? Has this mom learned her lesson?

And in more bizarre toddler news, a Melbourne, Australia toddler is selling abstract paintings in a commercial gallery for $3,000 a pop! Yes, people are actually buying them!

The photographer's daughter, Aelita Andre, started painting the vivid abstracts in acrylic paint when she was just 22 months old. Click here for an article about Aelita Andre to see a sample of her work, and tell me, could your child paint that?