Bad Parenting Led To Craigslist Baby Ad For 14-Year-Old Daughter

An outrageous Craigslist ad requesting mothers to drop off their unwanted babies in a “baby box” left readers scratching their heads and one Georgian mother in hot water with police this week. Elaine Williams, 47, of Cumming, Georgia, received a request from her 14-year-old daughter that most parents would have frowned upon: a baby.

Instead of discouraging her child, Williams went so far as to manufacture a plan to get the teen exactly what she wanted. Williams placed an ad on Craigslist entitled “Home for your newborn baby.”

The Craigslist ad gave detailed instructions to mothers on how to deliver their baby to a “baby box.”

First, readers were instructed to text for the location of the baby box. According to the Craigslist ad, birth certificates and health information should be placed in the box first and the baby should be securely strapped in. Mothers of disabled babies were directed to take their offspring elsewhere. It is unknown where the box was located.

Click here to read the Craigslist ad in its entirety.

What happened to the days when parents simply said no to an absurd request? Now the trend is to sidle up to the child and maintain peace at any cost. This is called permissive parenting, and according to Dr. Laura Markham, a Clinical Psychologist, it can cause destruction for a child.

Dr. Laura states that children with permissive parents have a hard time regulating themselves. If parents race to fulfill child’s desires at the first sign of a tantrum, that child will not learn to manage behaviors or emotions, but instead, have a sense of entitlement. As children get older, they will go to great lengths to get what they want even if it’s morally or ethically wrong.

And it looks like this is exactly what happened in the Williams’ household. The Forsyth County woman told police that her 14-year-old daughter insisted she would have a baby with or without her help. Instead of teaching her daughter about consequences, Williams submitted to her daughter’s demands, going so far as helping her daughter set up a nursery in her bedroom. Soon thereafter, the eyebrow-raising ad was published on Craigslist and the elaborate plan to obtain a child was put into motion.

The 14-year-old daughter granted an interview with CBS 46’s Adam Harding. The teen, dressed in a t-shirt and Adidas workout pants, downplayed her mother’s role in the placing of the Craigslist ad for the baby and rationalized her own behavior.

“The reason was, okay if you don’t want your child or you can’t afford it or whatever situation you’re in, then okay, maybe we can work something out.” The 14-year-old insisted the Craigslist ad wasn’t “for illegal adoption.”

Watch the interview here.

But the police aren’t buying it. They say the Craigslist ad showed a deliberate plan to take a baby through illegal means and to keep the baby in their care.

Woman Busted Trying To Buy Baby on Craigslist For 14-Year-Old Daughter – https://t.co/vJzjRan1hy pic.twitter.com/r8ScJaCWV7

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 7, 2015

When the teen was asked if she really believed she would have received a baby by soliciting with a Craigslist ad, she replied, “You never know.”

Dan Williams, the 14-year-old’s father, thinks the charges are ridiculous. He calls his daughter “creative” and claims the Craigslist ad was only meant to help a struggling family. Mr. Williams reported that the family received “several” responses to the Craigslist ad; however, they all appeared to be scams.

The penalty for advertising for an illegal adoption, which is a felony in Georgia, is a $100,000 fine and 10 years in prison. Both mother and daughter face the same charges; however, the daughter was charged as a juvenile.

Williams was released from jail on bond Monday night.

[Image via Shutterstock]