When Moms Are Pushed Too Far
April 24, 2009 — -- A mother's patience only runs so deep.
And so when Madlyn Primoff's daughters just wouldn't stop fighting in the backseat of her car, she kicked them to the curb, literally.
Primoff, a 45-year-old attorney who lives in Scarsdale, N.Y, ordered her two daughters, ages 12 and 10, to get out of her car Sunday when the tweens wouldn't stop bickering with one another, according to police.
While the 12-year-old was able to run and catch up with Primoff's car and catch a ride home -- an approximately three-mile trip -- her younger sister wasn't so lucky. A Good Samaritan reportedly found the distraught young girl in downtown White Plains, N.Y., and reported her to police, who later reunited her with her mother.
Primoff then was arrested on charges of child endangerment, for which she entered a not guilty plea. It was not immediately clear what sparked the argument between Primoff's daughters.
Declining to comment directly to ABCNews.com, Primoff's attorney, Vincent Briccetti released a statement on behalf of his client, lauding her as a "great mother with a great family."
But for many other mothers who heard about Primoff's incident, "great" was not a word they used to describe the aberrant mom, even if they did say they felt some degree of empathy for the parenting pressures that they believe led Primoff to snap.
"I've been on that edge, teetering, when I want to scream and pull my hair out and my kids' hair out," said Ilina Ewen, a 40-year-old mother of two who writes for the Deep South's Mom's Blog.
"But what [Primoff] did was so dangerous, " said Ewen.
Asked about the neighborhood in which the girls were left, Daniel Jackson, the public information officer for the White Plains Police Department that handled Primoff's arrest, described the area as "populated" and a "central business area."
Jackson added that the area was likely to have been less populated than usual when the girls were there because it was not a business day.
Asked whether the three miles the girl would have had to walk home would be considered excessive, Jackson responded, "White Plains is only 10 square miles itself, so three miles of walking is a good distance."
