SUGAR CREEK, Mo. -- From the outside, their Sugar Creek house looked like a typical home. Inside, Sugar Creek police said it was filthy, infested with fleas and littered with feces.

Officers sent the four young children who lived in the home to a relative's house, then they arrested their parents.

Their mother said the charges against her were unfair.

"I'll get my kids back," said Melanie Bredeman. "I don't care what it takes to do it. I'm going to get my kids back. They're my babies."

Her four young children were staying at their grandmother's house while she cleaned up the mess inside their Sugar Creek home on Claremont Street.

Bredeman's 4-year-old daughter alerted police to the situation Sunday after Bredeman and her husband had too much to drink.

"He had blacked out and he had hit me and I had my 4-year-old, I told her, 'Go get the phone and call 911 for me,'" Bredeman said.

Police arrested Wesley Bredeman, sent Melanie Bredeman to a hospital and took the children to get checked out because they said the house was unlivable.

"It was just filthy. You just walked in and the odors hit you," said Officer Virginia DeBeard, of the Sugar Creek Police Department.

Melanie Bredeman said when she returned home the next day to clean it up, officers took her into custody.

"Pretty much as soon as I parked the car and got out, they slapped on handcuffs and said, 'You're going to jail. I've got a warrant for your arrest for neglecting your kids,'" Melanie Bredeman said.

Both Melanie Bredeman and her husband were charged with four counts each of child neglect.

Melanie Bredeman gave KCTV5 News a tour of her home Tuesday to show that it wasn't filthy. She showed her children to a KCTV5 News crew to prove they weren't neglected, and she said she was mad police had made her parenting skills an issue.

"They just want to lock us up and take the kids. They don't want to hear what we have to say or hear any explanations or anything like that," Melanie Bredeman said.

Sugar Creek police defended their actions. They said the children were in danger and that the family needed help.

Building inspectors said the house remained unlivable.