CNN Video Clip

For those of you who have slower internet connections or a computer that doesn't handle video clips all that well, allow me to sum up this story...

A mother in South Carolina was arrested and charged with criminal neglect towards her 14 year old son. Her son weighs 555 lbs, which the state of South Carolina has deemed to be the mother's fault, stemming from the child neglect that she is being charged with.

The mother's defense as to why her son is so large is because she was working two jobs and had a limited income, which made it difficult for her to control her son's eating habits.

According to the state of South Carolina, she is being charged with criminal neglect because her son was "at risk, due to his mother's inattention to his medical needs" and, according to other officials, "she didn't take advantage of opportunities to get treatment for his weight."

In the video clip, the news anchor talks with the mother's attorney about the case. They eventually end up talking about where people will draw the line when it comes to a child's weight and it's relation to "criminal neglect" and/or "child abuse". They do raise some good points, as in...

- Can a parent be charged with child neglect if their child is too skinny, just because the child isn't getting proper nutrition?
- Can a parent be charged with child abuse if their child has bulemia or anorexia?

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, if you are a parent, your number one responsibility is to take care of your child. You are to make sure that your child is safe, has a roof over their head, clothes on their back and gets an education. But, you are also responsible to make sure that your child is healthy. This woman has obviously failed to do so, as her son is extremely unhealthy and dangerously overweight, so I can understand why authorities would charge her with child neglect.

On the other hand, the child is doing a lot of his eating at school and not at home. So, technically, shouldn't the school be charged with neglect, for allowing one of their students to get so unhealthy while under their supervision?

No matter how you look at it, there is only so much that a parent can do. Is it this mother's fault that her child is so big? Yes. But, other people are too blame for this too, including the child himself.

What are your thoughts?

I agree with your food thoughts. I've seen some of the menus in school cafeterias (It was only a few years ago that I was in high school), and there wasn't a green veggie in sight. Plenty of fries, pizza and soda though.

On the other hand, by 14 years old if I had been denied food I would have found a way to get it, and I ate in secret so nobody knew just how much I WAS eating.

I don't know if I agree with criminal charges being put on the mother. I think providing them both with education, the tools to lose weight, and maybe even counselling would probably have been a better first step. I'd be willing to put my taxes towards giving people proper tools to lose weight, and I certainly would have willing to pay for the tools to be provided to people before they reached 555 lbs.


And if nothing else, I think the intervention should have been made long before the point of 555 lbs.

Well you can be charged with neglect if you don't provide proper nutrition for your child, yes. I think that's pretty basic.

Where I think it gets slippery is with older kids who are capable of making a choice - if the parent is providing food and the child refuses to eat or hides the food or eats at the dinner table and the pukes in secret. Or, conversely, the parent is providing a proper amount of food - even if it's not great food, but in reasonable quantities - and the child goes out and gets more from someplace else and eats and eats. Obviously the parent sees the results of these things, but what more can they do? At what point can the parent be held responsible for the actions of their child?

That's one that I don't know where I stand. I mean at some point this is something that the parent doesn't have control over. You can't forcefeed a child. You can't lock up a child to keep him from eating outside food - both of those would also be considered child absue. So ... it's almost a no-win situation for the parent.

I do feel sorry for this woman. I think she's making some excuses (oh I bought fast food because I worked so much) when she could have been providing healthier food and guidance at home, but then again she might not have a whole lot of education in nutrition either (one of my soapbox issues). And I do think at 14 the son bears a lot of the responsibility. No one forced him to eat multiple lunches at school. His mom obviously didn't bring home 10,000 calories worth of food a day or more ... he went seeking the food and eating it by his own choice.

I don't think she should be charged, but I do think her son needs both emotional and physical help.

Nice Information