Miranda mother avoids punishment for slapping teen daughter on nose

The Miranda mother expressed remorse for her reaction to an argument in her home, acknowledging she needed to be a better parent.

A mother has avoided punishment after she admitted to slapping her daughter in the face causing her nose to bleed following an argument at their Miranda home.

The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, fronted Sutherland Local Court this week where she expressed her remorse for her actions, acknowledging she needed to be a better parent.

The court heard the woman’s two children were squabbling at home at about 9.30pm on February 18 this year.

The woman spoke to her daughter about the disrespectful way she was behaving and slapped her in the face, aiming for her mouth.

Her hand actually connected with her daughter’s nose and caused it to bleed.

A mother has admitted she slapped her daughter doing an argument. Picture: File

The court heard the girl disclosed what had happened when she was at school and the police were notified.

Officers spoke to the mother and she admitted to hitting her daughter.

The woman pleaded guilty to the assault charge when she appeared in court for the first time this week.

In court, the woman’s lawyer said the slap occurred in the context of “the difficulties of raising a teenager” and the slap was the “apex” of a hard two years for the family.

He said the woman was usually a “law-abiding person” which was reflected in her not having a criminal record.

In a letter to the court, the mother acknowledged her reaction and conduct was “not acceptable” and she was very remorseful, adding she knew she had “very clearly overstepped the line”.

The woman’s lawyer said she did not know “what the boundaries were” between disciplining a child and the law but now understood.

He said the woman was slapped on the mouth when she was “disciplined as a child” and there was nothing “unusual or strange” about that conduct in her home.

The lawyer noted his client had undertaken a parenting course where she had learnt to discipline and parent her teenager daughter in a positive way and now knew she had to manage arguments better, adding she would not be before the court again.

Magistrate Philip Stewart took into account the woman’s nil prior criminal record, her remorse and completion of a parenting course.

Magistrate Stewart handed down a sentence of a conditional release order without conviction where the woman must be of good behaviour for 12 months.