Life can be really tough for a single parent who has to look after all their kids. Melissa Shields Henderson knows this well because she is a divorced mom with five children.

When the pandemic started, schools closed down and there was no daycare available, which meant her kids had to stay home. Even with all that going on, Henderson needed to earn money, so she took a job at a health spa that was about 23 miles from her house.

It was a tough choice, but she believed her 14-year-old daughter, Linley, could handle it. Linley was responsible for taking care of her four younger siblings, and it should have been fine since in Georgia, you can babysit if you’re at least 13 years old.

Sadly, things didn’t go as planned. While Henderson was at work and Linley was focused on her online classes, the youngest child went missing. Thaddeus, who was just four years old, saw his friends playing outside and decided to join them.

After about 10 or 15 minutes, Linley noticed her brother was gone, so she quickly went outside and brought him back home. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the police arrived and were waiting for their mom when she got back from work.

They informed her that her son had gone outside, and she thought everything was finished. However, two weeks later, they returned and arrested her. She recounted, “They put handcuffs on me, took me to jail, processed me, and locked me in a cell. It was terrible. I felt so humiliated.” She continued, “It makes me feel so hopeless, just when I was starting to think I could get back to taking care of things and returning to normal. They took away every chance I had.”
Her ex-husband did bail her out, but they warned her that her children might be taken away and that she could face a year in prison. When she finally went to court, the situation was resolved, and the judge ruled in her favor.

You can learn more about this issue by watching this video.