Baltimore Mom Smacks Rioting Son on TV

Every parent knows the feeling of frustration and anger that comes along with seeing their children doing something they shouldn't be doing. This mother caught her teenage son throwing rocks at police during the riots in Baltimore on Monday, and TV news cameras caught her smacking him repeatedly.

ABC's Baltimore affiliate WMAR-TV captured the video of the mom pulling her son away from a group of other kids, slapping him across the face and head. The camera was too far from her to get decent audio from her but the occasional expletive was loud enough to require being censored by the station. As she struggled to pull the ski mask from her son's head, she can be heard more clearly: "Take that [expletive] mask off!... You want to be out here doing this dumb [expletive]?"

This clip has spurred the Twitter hashtag #MomOfTheYear as well as some less vocal criticism. No matter what your take on the mom's actions are, she got her son away from the danger.