How the fuck do we suppose to keep the peace? Baby I swear its deja vu.

The mother of a 2-year-old was “shocked” when a woman picked up her toddler on Tuesday, bent him over her knee and spanked him inside a Salvation Army store on Clay Street after he apparently did something to annoy the woman.

“She was down there, trying to tell me what I should do and how I should act with my son,” Donnay Jones said Wednesday afternoon from her home in the West End. “I was sitting there – shocked – thinking, ‘Did she really just do that?’”

Gloria Ballard, 43, also of the West End, was arrested on an assault charge in the Tuesday incident. She appeared in court Wednesday, asked for a public defender and a plea of not guilty was entered for her. She was also ordered to stay away from the 2-year-old Sean Goode and his mother.

Outside court, Ballard denied wrongdoing and said she gave the boy a hug and gently patted his backside because he was upset.

Jones said her son got spanked after Ballard told her she should make him behave.

“I could have put my hands on her for doing that to my son, but something told me not to put my hands on that lady,” Jones said. “I think I did the right thing to press charges.”

Ballard faces a charge that carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. She will be back in Hamilton County Municipal Court Sept. 30.

Ballard is no stranger to the Hamilton County court system. In July she was convicted of public intoxication and has been convicted of disorderly conduct, trespassing and other minor crimes over the last few years.

The child’s mother has had some traffic tickets, but no history in Hamilton County of criminal behavior.

Ballard said she is a mother and grandmother who was just trying to help.

“And I got this,” Ballard said, while holding a paper that described the charge.

Thanks L/Spray for always keeping fuckery in my inbox!