Child Abuse is Evil Enough, now this.
Internet jokes… Some fail, some are hits, and some, well somewhere in between. For Alex McDaniel, making a decent parenting joke on Twitter got her investigated by Child Protective Services. The Mississippi mom found herself in a human trafficking investigation, no seriously. Her funny-ish parenting joke triggered an actual human trafficking investigation. McDaniel claims to have been quoting her three year old son on Twitter for a while now and cracking jokes about the circus of parenthood.
THREE YEAR OLD BOY SAYS THE DARNDEST THINGS, HE JUST LEARNED HOW TO SAY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
“He says the sassiest, smartest, most ridiculous things when I least expect it, and it’s one of my favorite things about him (and parenting, in general),” Said Alex McDaniel. “I’ve written about it a handful of times before and am always so tickled by how many people keep up with our mother-son adventures.” One of her more recent posts was a little talk with her son that was kinda funny and kinda frustrating for her. She followed the frustration up in by making a joke about the trials and tribulations of parenting.
“3yo for sale. $12 OBO (or best offer),” she sent out to the twitterverse.
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Seriously, what parent hasn’t, at one point, made a joke like this? Most parents get chuckles in response or a “me too” type of reaction.
McDaniel’s joke wasn’t just met with Internet giggles, however; there was also a knock on the door a couple days later by Child Protection Services after an anonymous male tipster reported her for suspected child abuse and human trafficking. Umm…what? McDaniel was told she needed to get her son out of school, so she retrieved him from preschool — during naptime no less! — so he could be interviewed by CPS. After a brutal few days, the charges were ultimately dropped thanks to the help of a good attorney, but the impact of what happened isn’t over. Although McDaniel doesn’t blame CPS and acknowledged that they have a difficult job, she’s outraged someone with a personal vendetta against her could use this to harass her family. Though she has no proof, she doesn’t believe this was an innocent misunderstanding.
