The biggest news this week which emerged out of the Baltimore riots was the video of a Mom who, on spotting her 16-year-old son among the crowd of teenagers throwing rocks at the police, furiously ran after him, grabbed him by his hoodie, and basically slapped him upside the head. Ordering him to get home and take off that (bleeping) mask, she literally scared him straight as he meekly obeyed her.

Parents all over the United States (and eventually worldwide as the video went viral) have been cheering her all week. Talk shows are discussing it, and the mother has been interviewed several times on what spurred her to react the way she did, oblivious to everyone watching. Now that he has overcome his embarrassment, the son has also been interviewed, and he has acknowledged that his formidable mother acted instinctively to get him out of that dangerous situation, because she cares and wants to keep him off the streets.

It is a reflection of just how badly parents have lost control over their kids that the mother’s behaviour should have captured so much attention. It was like a universal wake up call to mothers and fathers everywhere who seemed to have been shaken out of their collective stupor. Hello, yes, you do have every right to discipline your children. The best comment I read was “forget the National Guard, call in the Moms.”

Back in the day, before “time outs” and and when parents were allowed to spank their children (which is different to abusively beating them), most people disciplined their kids in this way. You would not dare oppose or defy your parents because yes, they would come after you, and haul your butt back home, much to your acute humiliation. Did it have its drawbacks? Obviously yes, as some parents took disciplinary measures too far. But did this approach keep children in line to a certain extent? Obviously, yes.

Over the last 20 years or so, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. Everyone these days complains about the utter lack of respect by children and teenagers, but this did not happen by itself. There is something to be said about maintaining that invisible line of parents/children where it is amply clear to both sides in whose hands the authority lies. In the past, you knew exactly where you stood with your parents, unlike today when it sometimes seems to me that no one knows what their role is supposed to be any more, as parents act like teenagers and precocious children act too grown up.

It seems to have taken the potent image of one pissed off Mama taking matters into her own hands to remind parents that when it comes to their children, it is they who need to take control.