When it comes to disciplining children, most parents know that sometimes what works for one kid can fail miserably with another.
Interestingly, a Staten Island mom recently found out that what works for some parents in the discipline department gets others thrown in jail.
Annette Gerhardt… remember the name… because you don’t ever want to end up like her.
According to news reports, the New York mom was hoping to scare some sense into her six-year-old by taking her to the police department and threatening to leave her there.
Gerhardt thought the idea was out of this world brilliant after seeing how successful it was when her pal did it with her unruly kid.
Apparently, lightning doesn’t strike twice… at least not in Gerhardt’s case.
Staten Island police say the mom’s stupid… ahem… I mean, bold… attempt to discipline her daughter was more than a parental misfire, it was illegal. After dragging her kid down to the police prescient to frighten her straight, Gerhardt ended up being hit with child endangerment charges.
So what went so terribly wrong?
The 25-year-old mother says the cops have it all wrong. She simply told her first grader that the police department “is where bad girls and boys go,” and if she didn’t shape up in school, that’s where she would be spending her days and nights.
Turns out Gerhardt was the one who ended up spending the night behind bars after she asked an officer to “play along” with her ruse. According to reports, the cop was stunned when Gerhardt covered her daughter’s ears and explained why she was there. Police say the mom went on a tirade about her wild child saying, “I can’t take her anymore. She is uncontrollable. I’m going to leave her here. If you don’t take her, I will take her to the firehouse.”
A short time later Gerhardt was arrested by a female officer.
“She told me that I was an unfit mother,” Gerhardt told news reporters. “I sat there with tears in my eyes.”
Police say they acted appropriately, while Gerhardt’s lawyer maintains the officers overreacted.
“It’s really just a misunderstanding that police blew out of proportion,” said Gerhardt’s attorney told news reporters. “She was trying to scare her daughter straight. Her mistake was not contacting police before doing this.”
Clearly, it’s not the only mistake this mom made.
Would you ever consider getting the police to help you discipline your first grader?
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