Mom Tries To Sell Kids On eBay

When my kids are having simultaneous meltdowns and I’m feeling totally overwhelmed, I’ll often joke to my friends that I’m going to give them away (“Who wants them?” I’ll offer up. “Highest bidder wins”). We all laugh and usually within minutes the meltdown are over and I like my kids again. It’s a common feeling among most moms (at least the honest ones). But have any of us really put our children up for sale? Of course not. We’d miss them way too much, plus there are the whole moral and legal issues to contend with.

An Australian woman doesn’t seem to mind. She recently put her two children, both under 10, up for sale on eBay. She posted photos of them along with a lengthy sales pitch. And then people actually placed bids on the auction, which alarmed authorities. The page has since been taken down and the woman, in her early 30s, is being investigated. But Victoria police did not press charges against the mom, who claims the act was a joke.

Of major concern to police, however, are the people who bid on the auction. “Who knows who these people are? They could be pedophiles or anyone. It’s extremely disturbing,” a police officer told the Herald Sun. With regards to the mom, police referred the case to the state’s department of human services, which is conducting a separate investigation. “We need to get to the bottom of why she did this,” a department spokesperson said. “This action could attract the attention of the wrong sort of people, whether it was a joke or not, and the family needs to understand the risks and receive advice around that.”

I personally keep wondering: Is this woman just stupid or was this act simply a cry for help? Either way, it was a sick and foolish thing to do. Plus, if she was truly overwhelmed, how could she possibly find the time to write such a lengthy sales pitch? Those poor children. Even it is nothing more than a joke, they’re still at the butt of it all – and there’s nothing funny about feeling unwanted.

(Photo: www.profitwithebay.co.uk)