FL - Mom tweets while son drowns

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every source I've read is stating something like 74 tweets that day

I keep seeing posts in defense of turning to social media in times of distress

I just don't get it

maybe after the fact ... like days later? idk what to say w/o seeming judgmental
 
Sounds like mom has an addiction. I read her excuse that she was outside with him. Well, she wasn't watching her child near a pool, she was watching something else she shouldn't have been watching. I wonder if she was so into tweeting whether she even heard him fall in. No excuse to be out there and not having moms EYES on the child, especially so close to the pool.

So sad. This child died needlessly. RIP little guy.
 
With all the controversy surrounding this so far I have to chime in before it sets in here too.

Shellie was outside with both her sons when this happened. She was not twitting from a computer. Her oldest son unwittingly left the pool gate open (yes the pool was fenced) and her youngest wandered inside and we all know the outcome.

What not many news reports are saying is that Shellie performed CPR on her baby until paramedics arrived. The time the paramedics were called has been reported from one minute after her last post (within that minute his lungs would have been full of water resulting in a severe lack of oxygen to his brain) to 11 minutes after her last tweet. I do know that her son rang 911 while Shellie performed CPR on her baby.

While paramedics were working on her son, (which meant all she could do was stand and watch the rest of the event unfold) she twittered and asked for prayers from her followers. When you are alone and in despair and can do absolutely nothing about what is going on around you, you do tend to want to reach out to someone, anyone.

Ask yourself...How many Websleuthers have asked for prayers for loved ones? How many, unasked, offer prayers for the loved ones whose children are missing, for the parents of those who have died? How many Websleuthers have attended the memorials of those they don't know in support...again participating in prayers.

What Shellie did is no different. It doesn't make her a bad mother. How many parents are sitting online at a computer right now posting twits, facebooking or playing online games who can't even see their kids or what they're doing?

The headlines I see everywhere say she was twittering as her son was dying.

As for not hearing her son fall in the pool...the majority of parents whose kids drown in pools hear nothing. Pool drownings are silent killers. And couple that with thinking that your pool gate is shut, and no one has left it open, you're left with a very sad scenario that no one on this earth would dream of happening to them.

Some children do not even fall into the pool, they slide in if they were reaching over it and not a sound is heard.

This is what I have learned just from finding all current reports on Shellie's boy drowning. I don't know Shellie at all. I do know she has a husband, an 18 year old and her 11 year old.

If the police can investigate her twitters and deem them to have no standing in the death of her son, why can't anyone else?
 
I agree. I have followed this a little bit as well, and what bugs me is the people who direct messaged her to tell her how horrible she was.

REALLY?? Are you really complaining that this mom is addicted to twitter, but you have so much freaking free time that you can blast a newly bereaved parent for something that you can't possibly know all the details of????

How about watching your own kids? Or pets. Or job. One woman went so far as to call LE and hospitals in the area to try to confirm the story. But Shellie is a bad person for spending a few seconds asking her support network to pray for her son?

I do not get the hate here. It is really ugly.
 
Samiya said:
With all the controversy surrounding this so far I have to chime in before it sets in here too.

Shellie was outside with both her sons when this happened. She was not twitting from a computer. Her oldest son unwittingly left the pool gate open (yes the pool was fenced) and her youngest wandered inside and we all know the outcome.

What not many news reports are saying is that Shellie performed CPR on her baby until paramedics arrived. The time the paramedics were called has been reported from one minute after her last post (within that minute his lungs would have been full of water resulting in a severe lack of oxygen to his brain) to 11 minutes after her last tweet. I do know that her son rang 911 while Shellie performed CPR on her baby.

While paramedics were working on her son, (which meant all she could do was stand and watch the rest of the event unfold) she twittered and asked for prayers from her followers. When you are alone and in despair and can do absolutely nothing about what is going on around you, you do tend to want to reach out to someone, anyone.

Ask yourself...How many Websleuthers have asked for prayers for loved ones? How many, unasked, offer prayers for the loved ones whose children are missing, for the parents of those who have died? How many Websleuthers have attended the memorials of those they don't know in support...again participating in prayers.

What Shellie did is no different. It doesn't make her a bad mother. How many parents are sitting online at a computer right now posting twits, facebooking or playing online games who can't even see their kids or what they're doing?

The headlines I see everywhere say she was twittering as her son was dying.

As for not hearing her son fall in the pool...the majority of parents whose kids drown in pools hear nothing. Pool drownings are silent killers. And couple that with thinking that your pool gate is shut, and no one has left it open, you're left with a very sad scenario that no one on this earth would dream of happening to them.

Some children do not even fall into the pool, they slide in if they were reaching over it and not a sound is heard.

This is what I have learned just from finding all current reports on Shellie's boy drowning. I don't know Shellie at all. I do know she has a husband, an 18 year old and her 11 year old.

If the police can investigate her twitters and deem them to have no standing in the death of her son, why can't anyone else?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the full story. The title of this thread is misleading. Also - it should not be in Crimes in the News and I hope a mod will move it. My love and prayers to Shellie and her family.
 
angelmom said:
I agree. I have followed this a little bit as well, and what bugs me is the people who direct messaged her to tell her how horrible she was.

REALLY?? Are you really complaining that this mom is addicted to twitter, but you have so much freaking free time that you can blast a newly bereaved parent for something that you can't possibly know all the details of????

How about watching your own kids? Or pets. Or job. One woman went so far as to call LE and hospitals in the area to try to confirm the story. But Shellie is a bad person for spending a few seconds asking her support network to pray for her son?

I do not get the hate here. It is really ugly.
Click to expand...

Such a great post, I wanted to do more than "thank" it.
 
Samiya said:
With all the controversy surrounding this so far I have to chime in before it sets in here too.

Shellie was outside with both her sons when this happened. She was not twitting from a computer. Her oldest son unwittingly left the pool gate open (yes the pool was fenced) and her youngest wandered inside and we all know the outcome.

What not many news reports are saying is that Shellie performed CPR on her baby until paramedics arrived. The time the paramedics were called has been reported from one minute after her last post (within that minute his lungs would have been full of water resulting in a severe lack of oxygen to his brain) to 11 minutes after her last tweet. I do know that her son rang 911 while Shellie performed CPR on her baby.

While paramedics were working on her son, (which meant all she could do was stand and watch the rest of the event unfold) she twittered and asked for prayers from her followers. When you are alone and in despair and can do absolutely nothing about what is going on around you, you do tend to want to reach out to someone, anyone.

Ask yourself...How many Websleuthers have asked for prayers for loved ones? How many, unasked, offer prayers for the loved ones whose children are missing, for the parents of those who have died? How many Websleuthers have attended the memorials of those they don't know in support...again participating in prayers.

What Shellie did is no different. It doesn't make her a bad mother. How many parents are sitting online at a computer right now posting twits, facebooking or playing online games who can't even see their kids or what they're doing?

The headlines I see everywhere say she was twittering as her son was dying.

As for not hearing her son fall in the pool...the majority of parents whose kids drown in pools hear nothing. Pool drownings are silent killers. And couple that with thinking that your pool gate is shut, and no one has left it open, you're left with a very sad scenario that no one on this earth would dream of happening to them.

Some children do not even fall into the pool, they slide in if they were reaching over it and not a sound is heard.

This is what I have learned just from finding all current reports on Shellie's boy drowning. I don't know Shellie at all. I do know she has a husband, an 18 year old and her 11 year old.

If the police can investigate her twitters and deem them to have no standing in the death of her son, why can't anyone else?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the full story and for putting this into perspective for me. It changed my mind! :)
 
Maybe not so sensationalist as the title implies.
Rest in peace poor baby:blowkiss:
 
Cubby said:
Sounds like mom has an addiction. I read her excuse that she was outside with him. Well, she wasn't watching her child near a pool, she was watching something else she shouldn't have been watching. I wonder if she was so into tweeting whether she even heard him fall in. No excuse to be out there and not having moms EYES on the child, especially so close to the pool.

So sad. This child died needlessly. RIP little guy.
Click to expand...

Apparantly, Mom had a gate around the pool and did not know her older child had opened it. Also, drowning babies are hardly ever heard, they fall in and go. Tweeting or not, she would not have heard him.
 
Shamrock said:
Thanks for the full story and for putting this into perspective for me. It changed my mind! :)
Click to expand...

Believe me, you're welcome.

I saw so many hate posts on other sites that I was determined not to let our beloved Websleuthers get caught up with the Tsunami.

The title of this thread is an exact duplicate of the many headlines that have been written...just by that you can see how misleading and sensationalist the headlines are. The news headlines alone make Shellie look bad, which is why I looked into it further.

It only takes one moment in time for something to go wrong and we can only hope and pray that this never happens to us or any of our loved ones.

As for that Madison McGraw...she should keep her mouth firmly shut.
 
Samiya said:
Believe me, you're welcome.

I saw so many hate posts on other sites that I was determined not to let our beloved Websleuthers get caught up with the Tsunami.

The title of this thread is an exact duplicate of the many headlines that have been written...just by that you can see how misleading and sensationalist the headlines are. The news headlines alone make Shellie look bad, which is why I looked into it further.

It only takes one moment in time for something to go wrong and we can only hope and pray that this never happens to us or any of our loved ones.

As for that Madison McGraw...she should keep her mouth firmly shut.
Click to expand...

FWIW - I have asked that this thread be moved to Up to the Minute.
 
Samiya said:
With all the controversy surrounding this so far I have to chime in before it sets in here too.

Shellie was outside with both her sons when this happened. She was not twitting from a computer. Her oldest son unwittingly left the pool gate open (yes the pool was fenced) and her youngest wandered inside and we all know the outcome.

What not many news reports are saying is that Shellie performed CPR on her baby until paramedics arrived. The time the paramedics were called has been reported from one minute after her last post (within that minute his lungs would have been full of water resulting in a severe lack of oxygen to his brain) to 11 minutes after her last tweet. I do know that her son rang 911 while Shellie performed CPR on her baby.

While paramedics were working on her son, (which meant all she could do was stand and watch the rest of the event unfold) she twittered and asked for prayers from her followers. When you are alone and in despair and can do absolutely nothing about what is going on around you, you do tend to want to reach out to someone, anyone.

Ask yourself...How many Websleuthers have asked for prayers for loved ones? How many, unasked, offer prayers for the loved ones whose children are missing, for the parents of those who have died? How many Websleuthers have attended the memorials of those they don't know in support...again participating in prayers.

What Shellie did is no different. It doesn't make her a bad mother. How many parents are sitting online at a computer right now posting twits, facebooking or playing online games who can't even see their kids or what they're doing?

The headlines I see everywhere say she was twittering as her son was dying.

As for not hearing her son fall in the pool...the majority of parents whose kids drown in pools hear nothing. Pool drownings are silent killers. And couple that with thinking that your pool gate is shut, and no one has left it open, you're left with a very sad scenario that no one on this earth would dream of happening to them.

Some children do not even fall into the pool, they slide in if they were reaching over it and not a sound is heard.

This is what I have learned just from finding all current reports on Shellie's boy drowning. I don't know Shellie at all. I do know she has a husband, an 18 year old and her 11 year old.

If the police can investigate her twitters and deem them to have no standing in the death of her son, why can't anyone else?
Click to expand...


My bolds. If my son were dying EVEN WHILE PARAMEDICS were working on him, I wouldn't be thinking about tweeting. I'd be as close as humanly possible to him without interfering with what the paramedics were doing. My family, and closest friends would come to mind before strangers reading my posts or tweets on the internet.

My father has a pool in his back yard. NEVER did I take my eyes off him while he was swimming. He's 7 and I still don't. Nor do any of us adults, leave him alone out in the back yard near the pool.

It's kind of common sense in many area's it is no longer legal to chat away on a cell phone while driving. Why would a parent bring electronics outside while watching their children?

My internet time is either while my son is at school, or after he is asleep at night. I was simply too busy watching him when he was 2. Their lighting bolts at that age.

Thread titles, or media titles of articles are a "marketing tool", to get people to read the article, buy the paper. I think it's a bit presumptuious (sp?) to assume everyone who reads the title of an article takes the title literally.

I still stand by my first post this mother spends too much time on the net, and sadly, it cost her son his life.

just saying.......
 
all I have to say is that this is exactly why I am a psycho mom who literally never lets the toddler out of her sight without another adult present to watch. yup, I am on here posting right now and baby is a foot away and I can see every move he makes.

why? because in two seconds of anything you're doing, they could slip away.

and amen to a misleading thread title :/ asking for prayers after an accident is nothing to be blasted over. I dont get why I am even hearing about this. my sympathies to the family.
 
mayfairlight said:
Apparantly, Mom had a gate around the pool and did not know her older child had opened it. Also, drowning babies are hardly ever heard, they fall in and go. Tweeting or not, she would not have heard him.
Click to expand...

My bold. My point exactly. distraction, when small children are around pools. The electronics should have never been outside with mom while her young children were near a pool.

I wonder how long the gate had been opened that mom didn't notice it.

jmo
 
Cubby said:
My bold. My point exactly. distraction, when small children are around pools. The electronics should have never been outside with mom while her young children were near a pool.

I wonder how long the gate had been opened that mom didn't notice it.

jmo
Click to expand...

My point too.
Just because she was "posting at Twitter" is no admittance of guilt she actually caused her poor child his death. I think I'm older than her, if I was younger maybe my only outlet of emotion too would be the same places where she is posting?

Calling her a "psycho mum" is evil, we don't know yet what actually happened.
So far to me it seems like a tragic accident. "Psycho mum"?? Hmm, in a few days maybe, after we have learned she was not even there for her child, ever... If anything ever happened to my kids, lets hope people at this board never finds out...

Don't ever want to be referred to as "psycho mom"...
 
mayfairlight said:
My point too.
Just because she was "posting at Twitter" is no admittance of guilt she actually caused her poor child his death. I think I'm older than her, if I was younger maybe my only outlet of emotion too would be the same places where she is posting?

Calling her a "psycho mum" is evil, we don't know yet what actually happened.
So far to me it seems like a tragic accident. "Psycho mum"?? Hmm, in a few days maybe, after we have learned she was not even there for her child, ever... If anything ever happened to my kids, lets hope people at this board never finds out...

Don't ever want to be referred to as "psycho mom"...
Click to expand...


Where did I call her psycho mum and where did I say she caused her childs death? Isn't saying she was not there for her child, ever.. stretching it a bit?
 
Cubby, I was replying to other messages with that quote, and to the general attitude of the subject. It was not directed at your post (which I very much agreed with) at all.
I can see this thread might very soon turn into a heated discussion about something I won't agree with and I'll just quietly leave before it does...
 
I am at the head of any torch bearing mob that is after a true example of parental stupidity. But I don't see that here. She was hardly tweeting while he died, she was tweeting, then he died of an accidental drowning. The headline stating that these two things happened simultaneously is misleading, from what I have actually read.
While there were actions that she could be taking, she took them, but when she couldn't be actively helping her child, she reached out.

Also with this tweet, she may have been thinking that she would save herself hours of phone calls from the hospital later. This was a crisis, and some people react to huge amounts of stress, panic, adrenaline and fear in ways that seem incomprehensible.

My torch will stay unlit. This seems a senseless tragedy, but ultimately, an accident.
 
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