... P O R T C H A R L O T T E, Fl., July 25 — A Florida boy was arrested for kicking his pregnant mother in the stomach.

The boy is 6. "(I'm) hoping that this was a learning experience for him," said the mother, Mattie Ashley. "It tore my heart up, it really did, but I believe it was tough love, sometimes a parent has to do what a parent has to do to get the child to realize right from wrong."

Trying to Teach Him a Lesson

Ashley and her son were arguing Sunday night, and she tried to smack the child in the mouth, according to a police report. Then, she and her mother tried to hold the boy down on the couch when he kicked her stomach.

Hoping to teach the boy a lesson, she called police. She says she was hoping they would try to scare to boy into making him realize that it's not right to kick pregnant women.

After all, this is not the first time he's done it, she said. The boy, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and has been suspended twice from kindergarten — once for kicking a pregnant teacher in the stomach, Ashley said.

Cops: We're Not in the Child-Scaring Business

But police said they're not in the business of scaring children — and refused to let the boy go when Ashley decided to drop the charges.

"I explained to Mrs. Ashley that if she wanted a criminal investigation to take place that it would be followed through to the end, that we were not going to just scare the child with the presence of a deputy," Sheriff's Deputy Jennifer Jazdzyk wrote in an arrest report obtained by The Associated Press.

"Mrs. Ashley stated that he needed to learn right from wrong sometime in life and we might as well start now," she wrote.

However, the boy was released when State Department of Juvenile Justice officials, who were contacted after the boy's arrest, told deputies to release him, according to The Associated Press.

ABCNEWS affiliate WZVN in Ft. Myers, Florida, contributed to this report.