Mother trailed by policeman and warned by council for telling off son at checkout
By NEIL SEARS
A mother fears she has been 'criminalised' for giving her children a ticking-off in a supermarket.
She was secretly followed home by an off-duty policeman who overheard her threatening to smack them unless they behaved.
Six weeks later two officers came to her home and questioned her about disciplining the youngsters, a boy of 11 and a four-year-old girl. To her horror she then received a letter from the local council saying her 'chastisement' of the children had been 'put on record' for at least the next 14 years.
Under surveillance: A policeman followed the mother to her home after she gave her children a ticking-off in a supermarket (file picture)
The shocked mother, a trainee manager in a Christian bookshop, said last night: 'It was an amazing intrusion. I was doing what parents should do, and what thousands do every week - setting moral boundaries for how children should behave.'
The 34-year- old mother does not want to be named, to protect the identity of her children. But she is speaking out to avoid the same thing happening to another parent.
She said: 'If no one stands up to this oppression, this political correctness, parents will lose responsibility for their kids and the state will take over.
'The local authority have told me they're keeping my family on record until my kids leave school, and my daughter is only four.
'If she ever falls over and has to be taken to hospital I'm worried about what conclusions they might come to. I feel I'm being kept on record as an abuser, so I will always be looking over my shoulder.'
The mother says she occasionally smacks the children 'as a last resort', but only three times a year at most.
The supermarket incident happened in August at the Co- op in Woolston, Southampton, near where she and her 40-year-old husband live.
The youngsters had been behaving badly all day, because rain had kept them indoors, and she had earlier given her son a 'mild smack' for arguing with his sister.
In the supermarket they were rampaging around the aisles and fighting. She made them sit on a bench while she went through the checkout, but they began arguing yet again.
The mother said: 'My words were something like, "How dare you behave like this. If you carry on like this you're going to get another hiding like the one you had earlier".'
The pair apologised and quietened down. Neither was smacked when they got home and she thought nothing more of it.
But more than a month later two policemen knocked on her door and told her a colleague had trailed her to find her address.
She said: 'I couldn't believe it. I have never been in trouble with the police and I have a great respect for them, so I was absolutely shocked. The officer must have seen only the end part of a long day.'
She was appalled when a letter arrived from Southampton council children's services department. It said no further action would be taken 'at this time', but added: 'We would like to advise you that we do keep the information on record.'
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The mother, who helps out at her church Sunday school, said: 'The police and social services have a difficult job to do and we all jump on their backs when they don't step in with cases like Baby P. But they've got to apply some common sense. In my case they have had a huge over-reaction and been very heavy-handed.'
Hampshire Police said: 'It was not an ordinary telling- off. Because of what the woman said and the way her children reacted to it, it gave our officer reasonable grounds for concern.'
Southampton council said writing to parents who are brought to its attention was 'standard practice', and that it was 'very important' to keep records of such incidents.
But the Reverend Mark Stocker, whose Spring Road Evangelical Church the mother attends, said: 'She is very upset because she feels it's criminalised her when she's just a loving mother who would never hurt her children. She's so shaken that someone actually followed her home.'
Mike Judge of the Christian Institute think-tank said: 'This woman is a personal friend - and I know she's a good mum. I don't think it's particularly a Christian issue, but we do believe in the family quite strongly, and get worried when the state tries to take over the role of parents.'
Mild smacking by parents is legal, but any punishment that leaves a mark can lead to court action.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1226056/Mother-trailed-policeman-warned-council-telling-son-checkout.html#ixzz2FGU0bCEa
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