Anne Woods: A Weekend for Superheroes
Mother of Three-Year-Old Smoker Convicted
Filed under: In The News, Weird But True
If you've got a three-year-old child, I would think you would pretty much know where that kid is and what they're doing at all times.Kelly Marie Pocock has a different method of child-rearing. While this 24-year-old Londoner was chatting on the phone, her son was elsewhere having a smoke. Yes, her three-year-old son was off in a bedroom smoking a cigarette.
As luck would have it, a friend of the mother stopped by for a visit and went looking for the boy. She found him under a bed, smoking. The friend brought the boy downstairs where he proceeded to pick up a cigarette butt from an ashtray, light it and begin smoking.
Said friend filmed the scene on her mobile phone and later forwarded the video to social services. A prosecutor told the court that "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."
Enter criminal charges. The mother pleaded guilty, saying she had never seen her son smoking. The judge, however, found differently, noting that the boy would not have been able to smoke without discomfort "unless he had acquired a habit." He went on to add that "this is an appalling situation and I don't see how, despite your basis of plea, you could have been unaware of the fact."
Pocock was sentenced to forty weeks in jail, suspended for two years. Unfortunately, the judge's reason for suspending the sentence was that he didn't want to separate the children from their mother.
Excuse me? The best thing he could have done for those kids would have been to take them away from their mother. What's your take?
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ReaderComments (Page 2 of 2)
1-27-2009 @ 4:04PM
Janell said...I am a staunch non-smoker who grew up in a smoking home. My mother still smokes, however, if I am visiting with my children she has enough RESPECT for me that she will take her cigarette outside. Not smoking around children is just common sense and I don't understand how anyone can argue that. The argument I see here that "I grew up with smokers and I'm fine" is also ridiculous. So, you got lucky. My sister has asthma, her kids have asthma and allergies, her youngest son had constant ear infections, etc, etc. She is a smoker who smokes in her car but NOT IN HER HOUSE. Her kids are still affected. My mother's smoker's cough is a frightening sound. It scares me for her health.
I just want to add one more thing that has not been mentioned here at all..... This child was found under a bed with a LIT cigarette!!!! He knows how to use a lighter that is obviously left within his reach. How lucky these people are that he didn't burn their house down!!!!
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1-28-2009 @ 2:27AM
Chynna said...I dont think it would be a good idea to separate a child from its mother, unless she is harming them or actully putting them in danger. A child should only be taken from its mother if she is harming,endangering,or neglecting the child. It may not be her fault the child was smoking. Children are extreamly inpressionable its very possible the child simpy has seen the mother smoking and was imitating the mother. And if she isnt keeping an sharp eye out on the child its possible she really didnt notice that the child has been doing that. Who knows how long the kid has been doing this, but im sure if the mother had seen the kid doing that she would have put a stop to it. So really the only thing you can blame the mother for is not keeping a better eye out on her child and smoking.
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