Thursday, September 17, 2009

Another store-slapped kid

For about the third time in a week, an adult had enough after a parent would not make their toddler be quiet in public and took matters into her own hands.

In suburban Cincinnati on Tuesday, a women picked up a mother's 2-year-old, bent him over her knee and spanked him inside a Salvation Army after the child did something to annoy the woman.

“She was down there, trying to tell me what I should do and how I should act with my son,” Donnay Jones told the Cincinnati Inquirer. “I was sitting there – shocked – thinking, ‘Did she really just do that?’”

Gloria Ballard, 43, was arrested on an assault charge in the Tuesday incident. She appeared in court Wednesday, asked for a public defender and a plea of not guilty was entered for her. She was also ordered to stay away from the 2-year-old Sean Goode and his mother.

Jones said her son got spanked after Ballard told her she should make him behave.

Ballard faces a charge that carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

There hasn't been a one of us who at sometimes hasn't been annoyed -- oh, OK, furious -- at a mother or father who seems oblivious to the fact their precious little one is going crazy in public and we all have to suffer for it.

But if you ever feel the temptation to grab the child for a little disciplinary swat, might I suggest go somewhere and count to 10 until the feeling subsides.

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