Car Wash Discipline

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Car Wash Discipline; Is it criminal.
Topic Started: Mar 8 2008, 09:09 AM (215 Views)
Post #1 Mar 8 2008, 09:09 AM	eye95
We've all seen the video. (If you haven't, I'll post a link.) Mom pulls into the car wash, puts in her money, and hoses down her 2-year old daughter. Is that criminal? The state of Florida says so. Mom has been arrested and charged. Seems cut and dry (pun intended), huh? After all, every news report uses the words "high pressure" when they talk about the hosing. That thing can peel paint! Can you imagine what it would do to a 2-year old girl? Horrible. Wait. Mom says she wasn't using high pressure. And, if you have ever used one of these do-it-yourself car washes, you know that if you do not pull the trigger, you get a much more gentle spray. Mom, who turned herself in (they didn't track her down), says she used this level. She also says that her daughter has these tantrums, and she uses water regularly to stop them. On the road, the car wash provided a handy alternative to going home and doing it there. This is questionable parenting, to say the least. Before calling it "bad parenting," I'd want to know more about exactly how Mom has implemented this method of discipline, whether it is effective, and whether it has been used based on some "expert" advice. If she uses it sparingly and in a way that is not physically harmful, if it is effective, and, most importantly, if some expert has recommended water to shock the daughter out of tantrum mode, then I'd question the wisdom of the method, but would not judge the mom. On the question of criminality: If, as the mom claims, which we will never know for sure, she did not use the high pressure setting, then this one act is not criminal. It may be horrifically bad judgment, but not criminal. If it is part of a pattern of behavior, then that pattern might amount to criminal child abuse. In any case, I don't see her being convicted. The video just does not contain enough proof of a crime. Most importantly, let's not jump to conclusions. And, I guess, that is the real point I am trying to make. In this era of every questionable act being videoed by someone, we have to avoid the snap judgments. While those videos give us the impression of seeing everything we need to know, we actually have only fractionally more information than if we did not have the grainy, soundless, and jumpy pictures, a few seconds in length. Remember, before you get too judgmental folks, someday you will have a lapse in judgment and someone will have his cell phone handy.	Administrator Posts: 2,647 Group: Editor-in-Chief Member #1 Joined: December 11, 2005



Post #2 Mar 8 2008, 06:40 PM	ScottHughes
At the very least, the people who may arrest her could agree not to further prosecute her if she agrees to go to parenting classes and allows for supervision from a child services agency. Nonetheless, as I think you, eye95, are pointing out, the specific judgment is most appropriately made after getting as many details as possible, which hopefully the people involved in dealing with the case will consider. As a rule of thumb, the choice to punish a child with a car wash seems crazy to me. I have to believe that she could have thought of something else. As a rule of thumb, I don't want to leave children with someone who makes such seemingly crazy lapses of judgment--which I assume she did out of anger. But it depends on the details.	Civilian Posts: 116 Group: Full Members Member #46 Joined: August 28, 2006



Post #3 Mar 8 2008, 08:51 PM	eye95
As a rule of thumb, many choices we all make seem crazy to others. They do not know the context.	Administrator Posts: 2,647 Group: Editor-in-Chief Member #1 Joined: December 11, 2005



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