A Georgia woman was arrested after she dropped her kids off at a child services office because she did not want them any more. Nikia Smith reportedly walked into the Cobb County office of the Department of Family and Children and asked officials if she could leave her three children with them.
“They advised her, ‘Look it’s the end of the day, come back tomorrow, we can work through some of this and make decisions,'” Marietta police officer Brittany Wallace said, Mommy Page reported. Smith then walked away, abandoning her children in the lobby.
The kids started crying, prompting officers to track the mother down and try to negotiate with her.
“[They] continued to talk to her, ‘Let’s talk about this, lets figure out a plan.’ They did tell her, ‘If you do not return we will take out a warrant for you.’ At that point in time she made the comment ‘I would rather go to jail than take back my children,’” Wallace said.
Smith told authorities that she decided to leave her kids because her oldest is mentally disabled and she couldn’t afford the treatment anymore. She was ultimately arrested when she firmly stated she would not take her kids back.
“Some people think you can take your kid and drop them off at a fire department or drop them off at DFAC and they would gladly take them in. That is not the case,” Wallace said.
Many readers were outraged by the mother’s actions, but said her decision was better than harming or killing them.
“As bad as this sounds, I would rather see her surrender her Children, rather then do something to physically harm them, there are so many stories of abuse and worse. I think the Mother needs counselling, and some community support, rather than Jail. What she did is not right, and yes even illegal, but like I said she could of harmed those children. It is just terribly heartbreaking for those children, I can not imagine how this will impact them. I can only hope they get the counselling they will need,” one Shared reader commented on the site’s Facebook page.
“Sometimes you act mean and say things you don’t mean to protect your children. She couldn’t afford the kids meds and obviously couldn’t care for their needs. Maybe she was so brutal in her choice of words to try to remind herself that she really was doing what was best for them. She didn’t hurt them, physically, maybe a bit mentally. She didn’t sell them. Was there possibly another way to go about things? Well, yes. But didn’t she do an ok thing by bringing them to family services? I think so. The best place she could have brought them in my opinion. The cop shop would have been the next best place. But the cop shop would have been a bit scarier, one would think,” another added.