Via Becket Adams, what better way to wind down a slow news day than with a nasty food fight in the comments about proper parenting?

Stipulated: If you’re going to hook your second-grader up with Fireball, best not leave an evidence trail on social media.

A Seminole County mother who allegedly poured whiskey shots for her children and then posted the pictures on Facebook is now facing child neglect charges…

One child talked his mother into trying a shot of Fireball, while other admitted to being allowed to try various drinks on other occasions, according to the arrest report…

“I don’t think it was criminal; I didn’t think it was criminal, so it’s frustrating” Jackson-Denault said…

“In my opinion, no. I did exactly the opposite of that. He did not do a shot of Fireball. He tasted what it tasted like,” Jackson-Denault said.

What are the rules of thumb on this? Middle-teen having one beer at a family gathering/celebration = okay, yes? Younger child having a sip of whiskey so that he can be grossed out by the taste and not touch the stuff for another 10 years = also okay. Younger child actually downing a shot = not so okay, although the age of the child will determine the propriety. You might let your 13-year-old have a single shot on a special occasion where all the adults are drinking, e.g. a wedding. You might not want to let your six-year-old have one too. But a sip to taste is different, obviously, from letting him ingest enough to get drunk. That’s the touchstone here, I think: Are you giving the kid so much that it actually induces intoxication, and are you doing it with any regularity? That break from social norms is where cops probably raise an eyebrow.

Which makes me wonder: Was she really arrested for letting the seven-year-old have a tiny sip or were there enough “other occasions,” per the excerpt above, that the cops figured it was time to send a message? Seems so weird that they’d haul a mom in on a neglect charge with nothing more damaging than a photo, whatever the law might say.