Woman speaks after video shows her smoking pot with daughter nearby

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - A follow up now to the Only On FOX story about a Houston mother captured on video smoking marijuana with her young daughter on her lap. The mother of three who was seen on Snapchat smoking in front of her child says she is speaking out for one reason. The 24-year-old woman wants to defend herself.        

>> Woman seen smoking marijuana in front of child         

“I grew up around it myself," explains the woman. "It was in my surroundings and I didn't get affected in any kind of way.” She does not want to be identified, but this mother of three children says her cousin took the video of them smoking marijuana with her 5-year-old daughter sitting on her lap.

”It just calms me," says the mother. "It mellows me out and that's it. I still maintain to be able to cook and clean and do everything else that's necessary for my kids”.

Many people in the Houston-area have been outraged since the video was shared heavily. 

“It's more common than you think," says the mother. "It's just not put out there on recorded video.  That was a dumb mistake that was made by somebody else. Not my error." But recorded or not, why would she do drugs with her child right there?

”I feel like it was not an endangerment to my kids," explains the mother. "If I felt like it was something that was going to harm my child in any way physically, mentally, emotionally, in any way like that, I wouldn't do it around my kid.” In fact, she describes herself as a good mother. 

“My girls are five years old and they can speak for themselves and I know they would represent me as a great mother," adds the mother. 

When asked if she believed the 5-year-old girl breathing in marijuana was harmful, the mother answered, "She wasn't there for that long.” 

The cell phone video inside the mother's apartment unit also shows a stash of marijuana, which she says looks misleading. She says her children were in a different room from the tray of marijuana. 

“Even in the 80s whenever it was the hippie days, it was happy hippy, not, 'It's bad, don't do this.'  It's not crack,” says the mother.

A Child Protective Services representative says someone smoking marijuana with their child on their lap is potentially "neglect" because it isn't what's in the best interest of the child.

Does this mother fear being charged with a crime or that CPS will investigate her? 

“If CPS investigates me, it's OK for them to enter my home because I know my home is OK.”           

The mother of three says she has never smoked marijuana in front of her children before this and she says she will never do it again with them present.