Mum investigated by authorities after Twitter post 'offering to sell her 3yo son for $12'

A mum is being investigated after she joked about selling her son on Twitter.

Alex McDaniel, a journalist from Mississippi, was tweeting about the funny exchanges she has with her four-year-old son.

In one tweet she referenced a conversation where she was trying to toilet train her boy.

But things went pear-shaped when she responded to the tweet.

“3yo for sale,” she tweeted

“$12 OBO (or best offer).”

While some Twitter users responded to the tweet with good humour and it received 49 likes, another user decided to call Child Protection Services, the Mirror reports.

CPS showed up at her office a few days later and she was told an anonymous male had reported her.

Things only escalated and a CPS supervisor and attending police officer told Ms McDaniel her son had to be taken out of school so they could check on him.

Ms McDaniel also had to undergo a home visit.

In a statement, Ms McDaniel said CPS told her an anonymous tipster cited on her tweets as “undeniable proof” she was trying to sell him.

Luckily, a lawyer was able to help the mum and her case was dismissed due to “zero evidence” she was trying to sell the boy.

Ms McDaniel said CPS were just doing their job.

But “while it’s laughable now, at the time it was anything but”.

• Parents of boy with rare skin condition cop 'child abuse' accusations

• Mum's genius lifehack for pain-free splinter removal

The mum said it was also concerning someone who follows her “parenting vignettes” would report her to CPS and while she has no proof it was a “targeted attack” when “you’re a journalist, you either have enemies or you’re not doing your job”.

“It seems unimaginable that someone would despise my opinions on flags and statues so much that the only answer is to harm my family, but in some ways, it doesn't seem that far-fetched,” Ms McDaniel writes.

“When I started tweeting his obnoxious/hilarious quotes, I did it for other parents who know how hard this job is. Really hard.”

Ms McDaniel is yet to tweet about her son since the investigation, but it hasn’t stopped her sharing other quirky stories about her family.

“Mum: I don't even get two retweets,” she tweeted.

“Me: you don't tweet, mum: no but when I do it's two retweets max.”