Mum Lets Toddler Smoke

We’ve all heard of kids sneaking cigarette butts out of Mum or Dad’s ashtray and trying to smoke them. Heck, most of us have probably done it ourselves, back in our wild early teen years.

But I’d wager that none of us did when we were three years old.

But that’s exactly what Kelly Pocock’s son did, according to Pocock’s “friend” Natasha Dudley, who filmed the three-year-old smoking butts while his mother chatted on the phone nearby in her home in south Wales. Dudley had also seen the boy earlier sneak a butt and smoke it under his bed. Dudley gave the film to child services, who arrested Pocock.

Why didn’t Dudley say something to Pocock, who claims she was “shocked” when she heard of the incident from police? Maybe because the young lad looked like he knew what he was doing. According to prosecutor Jonathan Rees: “The video demonstrates the boy placing a cigarette into his mouth, lighting it with a lighter and sucking, drawing smoke clearly into the lungs and he seems to do it with some accomplishment. It doesn’t cause him any discomfort. He is sat on a chair close to the mother, who is talking on the phone. It is clear that the boy, at the age of three, knows what to do with a lighter and cigarette.”

I used to smoke myself (when I was a bit older than 3), and it took me a long time until I could inhale without collapsing in a coughing fit or making a face in disgust. In fact, it took a kindhearted “friend” of mine to inform me that for the first few months or so, I wasn’t actually inhaling at all. So clearly this kid had been at it a while if he did it without any bother. Whether the mom was as shocked as she claimed, I don’t know. If she was, she’s clearly not paying much attention to the kid, so doesn’t really win any points.

Pocock received a 40 week suspended sentence and one year supervision order after pleading guilty to cruelty to a child under the age of 16. She has two other children; let’s hope she can keep a better eye on them.

Do you think she got off too easy?

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