Six-year-old Bethany Howell got ahold of her mom’s iPhone while she slept, forged her fingerprint and ordered $250 worth of Pokémon dolls off Amazon. Most of the sales were with 3rd person vendors and were nonrefundable. The parents ending up telling Bethany that the ones they couldn’t return would be her gifts from Santa this year.
Parents, how would you handle this one?
She doesn’t keep any. Parents take her to hand deliver the ones they couldn’t return to the nearest children’s hospital.
But that’s just me.
Imagine if the child had stolen money out of a parent’s wallet, went to the nearest toy story and bought a bunch of stuff that couldn’t be returned.
It’s no different but I would think most parents would be livid. Watch the mom in the Fox and Friends video, she’s rather unconcern and Bethany doesn’t want to talk to the interviewer.
Let her keep what she ordered, consider it an expensive lesson that I need to better maintain control and security of my devices.
Once that girl is old enough to find the liquor cabinet, you may want to remember this incident and action accordingly.
For staters, no six year old in my house has access to youtube videos or a tablet/smartphone. I may spend some time sharing videos and other content but it is supervised. What the hell are they thinking?
$1.53 to take out the garbage, $5.77 to sweep out the garage, $10.08 to mow the lawn, etc. That would teach her decimal arithmetic (multiplication and addition) as well as that actions have consequences.
I wonder what the kid would do next. Then they got the elf on the shelf involved. They’re teaching their child to be dishonest and they got on TV too. That kid is going to have the parents in big trouble with her when she becomes a teenager. Nip it in the bud now or prepare yourself. I would have given all the toys to the wounded warriors children, but that’s just me. The kid wouldn’t get a thing for Xmas.
I think this whole story is a farce. So, as a parent I wouldn’t go for my 15 minutes of fame with such a lame a** stupid attention wh*re my life is pathetic story.
🙂
My parents would have broken both my arms. I’d just have her run the dolls through my radial arm saw a few times and say her hands were next if she pulls that s**t again.
Whale oil beef hooked! Kid has access to Netflix, etc. Real progressive mom. She’s gonna get kicked in da ass one day if this shit don’t change.
Tough call but I’d probably put her up for adoption.
I’m probably in the minority here, but this is completely the mother’s fault.
For starters, she has her phone set up to unlock by fingerprint. That right there tells me she’s an idiot. My wife and I have our phones, tablets, laptops, and PCs locked by password – and the kids do not know the passwords.
Second, her kid is obviously not well-disciplined, as evidenced by the fact she did this in the first place, and by the fact the parent let her keep the toys. The kid knew she could do it AND get away with it with little or no consequences.
Again, that’s the mother’s/parent’s fault.
Children are like animals – their bad behavior is the result of poor training.
@harbqll – Well said. That mom-thing is the fault for reasons you outline. Mom says it was the kid’s “first time on Amazon” and smiles proudly. Maybe it was her first time alone on Amazon, but you can bet Momma is on Amazon a lot, and has shown of the kid what it is, how much fun she has using it, and how it works.
What to do with the nonreturnable dolls? Give them away to a hospital as suggested in an earlier post. Someplace in the girl’s soul, she knew she was doing wrong.
Parents fault, she is an idiot. I won’t presume to tell another how to raise her kid but hopefully she lets her stay in jail overnight some time in the future. Maybe now is the time to get a bail bondsman on speed dial.
Just wondering, is there a father in the picture?
Not my responsibility to tell this parent how to raise/punish their kid.
I will offer this advise, get a bail bondsman on speed dial and put a lawyer on retainer, you’re gonna need them sooner than you think.
Shenanigans………..
Ashlynd’s (another kreative kid’s name, which says a lot already) smile when the newsreader asked her if she knew what she was doing was wrong conveyed a lot. NY Mag praises her for being a genius in that she knew what she wanted and got it. Really?
You’re asking “Parents, how would you handle this one?” of a group of people who probably wouldn’t even let a child A, get comfortable using a cell phone unsupervised. B, have inculcated their kids with a strong sense of boundaries and respect. C, Have already acquainted their children the concept of consequences, especially that of theft. So there’s no there there for me to offer. I was never that parent.
I think the idea of marching her down to the nearest children’s ward to hand them out is excellent. She doesn’t deserve them because she’s clever, and dishonesty needs to be redacted. The parent’s choice was mush-brained at best.
iPhones are like loaded guns in the wrong hands, and can be equally deadly.
How can you forge a fingerprint? Sounds fishy to me.
I wouldn’t have an Iphone or kids…..problem solved.
Remember those 900 numbers back in the 70’s that were very expensive to call? Well, Santa Clause was on TV telling kids to dial him at the 900 number. So, both my kids got on the phone and called Santa continuously. They had no idea that it cost $$$ until we got the phone bill of over $500! Yeah, hell broke loose in our house and we told both of them no Santa for you. They started crying and saying they were sorry and they didn’t know blah, blah. We asked both of them what did you get in return for the phone calls, and what did Mom and Dad get? It never happened again. In this case my kids didn’t know the expense, they just wanted to talk to Santa. to this day, I hate Santa. 🙂
Why were the child thief and her enabling parents able to return any of these purchases? Some retailer has chargeback fees and nonrefundable shipping charges that will be passed along to the rest of us. Youngest bint ever profiled on iotwReport.
How deep does this woman sleep that she didn’t feel her kid moving her thumb to unlock the phone?
How can you forge a fingerprint?
After her mom fell asleep on the couch within the ‘first five minutes of the movie’, she got the phone and took mom’s thumb and used it to unlock the phone. And she’s being praised for it in some quarters. We need those guardrails of a civil society back STAT.
Frightful to admit, but my kids have unlimited access to my credit card on Amazon and Microsoft (Xbox). It’s too much of a hassle for me to password protect it. About every other night there’s a purchase from Amazon and so far it’s been a free purchase. They have so far asked my permission plus lay down their own cash for anything greater than $0.00.
It’s a teachable as far as I’m concerned, and it has worked for us the past 2-3 years with now 10 and 13 yr olds.
That Reporterette has huge rubber lips, I can only wonder why.
Just wow. This child is totally being rewarded for being deceitful and a thief. She is six years old, way old enough to know the concept of stealing and that it’s wrong.
But the parents let her keep the dolls they couldn’t return after this disgusting behavior, then take her on tv and tell the story (likely repeatedly) as if they are PROUD of her ffs. The tone of voice, the knowing looks, it all passes the message that there are no consequences for being a filthy thief, and I predict it’ll just get bigger from here.
That kid would not be playing with the damn dolls on national tv if it were my situation: there would be NO Christmas presents at ALL. The non returnable ones would go to a children’s hospital.
What a disgrace.
My soon to be 7 year old girl has a IpadMini,
a desk top, plays Roblox and ABCMouse, and is fully
conversant with both devices. She has full access to
the internet and youtube also.
What she can’t do is walk her way through Amazon
on any of the devices, OR have the password for either
Amazon or IStore.
I doubt the credibility of this story and would put
my kid up for a match in device knowledge.
Pregnant, addicted, and in prison by 18.
I watched a 4 year old girl play a cell phone like Lindsay Sterling plays the fiddle. It’s one thing that they have the smarts to figure out how to make the thing work, but it takes a bit longer for them to understand right from wrong. You wouldn’t hand a child a loaded gun, the keys to the car, or even a book of matches without being absolutely certain they were cognizant of the consequences of doing the wrong thing with them. A cell phone connected to your bank account via Amazon “One Click” may be less dangerous, but no different in terms of responsibility.
Yeah, Mom ought to beat her black and blue, smash and rip the toys to shreds, and lock her room for a month, giving her only bread and water. That’ll teach her huh?
@Friend?
I have heard of straw men but straw punishment?
You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch.
First thing Mom does is ask the kid to show her how to do that. Mom then buys $thousands worth of stuff the kids’ Dad has to pay for. Mom never could figger out anything for herself.