Twitter Mom, Shellie Ross, Subject of Adamant Criticism and Even More Adamant Support

Shelly Ross is a Florida mother who has become somewhat of a hot topic on Twitter, after her son, Bryson Ross, drowned Monday, December 14. She blogged on Twitter quite regularly, using the name, @Military_mom. She had recently moved to a new house with a pool with her husband, older child, and a toddler, Bryson Ross. Her husband was expected to deploy overseas after Christmas. From the tweets posted on Twitter, it appears she was somewhat of a keeper of birds in cages in her yard.

It also appears that she had been using Twitter, posting updates almost right up until the time of her child's death. She posted once from the hospital while they were trying to revive the drowned child, asking her Twitter community to pray for her child who had fallen in the pool. Many of the tweets have subsequently been deleted from Twitter since the time of the death.

According to Floridatoday.com, the local law enforcement agency has investigated the death and released a statement that her social networking on Twitter did not cause the accidental drowning. Shelly Ross explains that she thought her older child was watching her toddler while she was tending to the birds, but the child had slipped out and fallen in. She had dived in to save the child, and the older child called 911 for help. She performed CPR until EMTs arrived and took over. Sadly, Bryson was pronounced dead at the hospital.

There was immediate reaction from the Twitter community, initially mainly critical and accusatory in nature. People were blaming her with neglecting the child's welfare by being preoccupied with Twitter. The accusations were sometimes very bitter in nature, seemingly stirred on to a greater pitch by a certain Twitter blogger, Madison MacGraw, who goes by the Twitter name @madisonmcgraw. It seemed by Friday that most of the activity on Twitter had evolved into words of support and prayer for the Ross family. They had asked to be allowed to grieve their loss. Of course, this message has been "retweeted" across Twitter.

Kimberly C. Moore, Twitter played no role in drowning of military_mom's son Bryson, Floridatoday.