An Orlando area mom who allegedly threw her 4-year-old daughter’s drawing in the trash is facing felony charges for disposing of a minor’s artwork.
When police arrived on the scene yesterday afternoon, they found a piece of paper inside the kitchen trash can and a preschooler sobbing inconsolably on the floor beside it. Police were able to recover the paper, with two red squiggly lines, as evidence.
The mother has been identified as Laurie Wright, 32, of Windermere, Florida.
“I was cleaning up the living room before dinner,” Wright protested. “This isn’t a masterpiece. It’s just scribble-scrabble. Tomorrow she’ll draw something else.”
Neighbors described Wright as a practitioner of feng shui who routinely decluttered her house.
“I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not,” said Sally McNamara, whose daughter is BFFs with Wright’s daughter. “Her home was always tidy. I don’t know how she’d manage that unless she was throwing stuff away.”
Wright was handcuffed and taken into custody where she currently awaits arraignment. If convicted, she could face a stiff prison sentence after which she would have to register as a bad mom who obviously hates art with the National Registry of Terrible Mothers.
“I’ve been on the force a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Officer Paul Vargas. “Such depravity. It really does make you weep.”
A version of this post was first published on Science of Parenthood
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About the Author
A longtime freelance writer, Norine Dworkin-McDaniel has written for just about every women’s magazine you can buy at the newsstand. Dworkin-McDaniel is co-creator of the blog Science of Parenthood and co-author of Science of Parenthood: Thoroughly Unscientific Explanations for Utterly Baffling Parenting Situations (She Writes Press), winner of the Independent Book Publishers Association’s 2016 Gold Benjamin Franklin Award for Parenting & Family and Foreword Reviews’ 2016 Silver IndieFab Award for Humor. She’s a contributor to several humor anthologies, including Have Milk, Will Travel: Adventures In Breastfeeding (Demeter Press). She lives in Orlando with her husband and son and three spoiled house cats.