Some questions from those of us who have never been saddled/burdened with such terrible kids that the police had to do our parenting for us:
If your kid is such a problem, then Why The Hell isn’t he in church with you?
If you are so interested in being a ‘God Warrior’, why don’t you try to please your Lord by possibly teaching and raising your son? You’re Damn Skippy, it’s a better way to show off your values than power-games to see who gets ‘First Chair Soprano’ in the Choir. If Jesus is watching, I’m pretty sure He’d care a Damn Sight More about how you raise your son than how many hours you punched onto your weekly church time-card.
Opal, can even You slap some sense into this Bitch…!?
PS- Did it ever occur to you to either give him the present early, store it at work, or even return it to the store/sell it on E*bay? Just something to think about while you’re scrubbing the finger-print ink off your 12-year-old son. Guess you never wanted him to be a Cop or a Lawyer or hold a government security clearance, huh?
Lady, I not only Pit you, but if given half a chance, I’d turn your Bible to John 3:15, roll back the covers, and shove it up your ass!!! (And I wouldn’t make you wait til Christmas either. Ho-ho-ho!)
If the kid is that much of a problem, she probably doesn’t take him into situations where he has to sit still and act like a civilized human being because he refuses to. Heck, she might be going there so she has a few minutes of peace. I don’t think it’s particularly fair to consider the woman a bad mother just because she’s Christian.
That said… jiminy Christmas, lady, what are you thinking? You have a kid you can’t control, you leave him alone at an age that, for an immature kid, he really should be left at home, and when he acts up you call the cops on him? When I was his age, I would have feared my parents’ wrath a lot more than I’d have feared the police. I remember when I went to a school where they still used the paddle (Catholic school, hurrah!) but had an opt-out form for parents to sign. My mother did so immediately with the statement: “If ever you do anything they think you deserve to be smacked for, I want to know about it. Because if I disagree then you won’t get punished, but if I agree, you’ll wish they’d just taken a paddle to you.” Parental punishments – and I’m talking non-corporal punishments – can have a much greater effect.
She’s looking to the government to nanny her kid. We’re only hearing a bit of the story, and it could be that there’s some serious problems she can’t handle, but getting her kid arrested is unlikely to be the right way to do it. In the same situation, had my mother caught me like that, the Game Boy would have gone back to the store, as would the lion’s share of my Christmas gifts, I’d have been grounded for a month from computer/television/phone/video games, and I would have to give a heartfelt and shamefaced apology to my great-grandmother. This is of course beyond the day-long lecture.
If she’s having this much trouble reining in her kid, she needs counseling, not cops.
The fact the Mom is 27, the son is 12 and there is a 63-year-old great-grandmother, really makes me a little frightened about this family. The reproduce a little young in that family, don’t they? :rolleyes:
I am not sure the woman made the best choice, but it sounds like she cannot handle the boy. It sounds like there is no father in the picture and maybe her heart is in the right place.
She is having the police do an intervention for her, before her son ends up in serious trouble. She said at the bottom of one of the articles, she is afraid of getting a call one day that her son is dead.
… that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life?
I’m pretty sure you meant John 3:16, but a better verse would probably be Proverbs 22:6 (Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it) or even Proverbs 29:15*(The rod of correction imparts wisdom,
but a child left to himself disgraces his mother).
Nitpick aside, I don’t know what was going on with that family, but neither does anyone else here. I have a nephew upon whom the law had been called multiple times by the time he was 12, sometimes by members of the family. He’s in custody of the state now.
Am I happy about that? No. Is his mother happy about it? No. But there is something wrong with this kid that we do not have the resources or expertise to fix. There comes a point when the rest of the family needs to be protected from someone who is dangerous. (Lest you think I exaggerate, he tried to strangle his grandmother, my mother, more than once.) And, all stereotypes aside, he actually seems to be getting some help where he is.
It’s not dangerous to open your Christmas presents early, but we don’t know what the history is here. It may have involved picking or breaking a lock to get to it, or it may just have been the absolute last straw. The mother may, on the other hand, be a raving incompetent loonie. But I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt before shoving Bible misquotes up her butt.
I don’t get the OP. What’s with all the religious stuff? I read the article, not a God or Jesus or church mentioned. WTF? Have I stumbled onto a religious message board?
I’m also wondering why the kid is even getting that present, what with the being incorrigible and all that. He should be getting a Holly Hobby EZ Bake oven, to train himself for the future job of late night fry cook.
If an arrest is what it takes to scare this kid away from being a little shit, then I’d say it’s a good use of my tax dollars. Then again, it sounds like nothing will teach this little shit.
OK I just saw she picked him up after church. But what the fuck has that got to do with anything? Maybe she just wanted him to stew for a while. Wouldn’t you?
The kid is out of control and needs to be taught a lesson. I think she did the right thing in calling the cops.
I admit the mother was strict and went an extreme route, but I don’t think her religion really matters in the discussion. Nor do I think she should have automatically taken her son to church with her. A normal twelve-year-old kid is plenty old enough to watch himself for a few hours.
We don’t know anything about this woman’s child-rearing. She could be a saint, and she could still be blessed with an incorrible child. Happens all the time. That’s why, unless I actually see the parents being irresponsible, I tend to withhold judgement when I see bad kids. From the article, the boy has a history of doing disobedient things. The mother sounds like she’s at the end of her rope and is trying her damndest to set him straight.
I don’t know if I would have called the police on my kid for stealing his own Christmas present, but I’m not about to villify the woman just for being at the end of her rope.
My point was, if the kid is that irresponsible & that out of control, wtf is she doing leaving him home alone? Either bring him to church (maybe it will do him good), stay home from church and watch him, or leave him in the hands of someone capable of watching him while she’s at church. (Leaving him in jail so she can get in some extra prayin’ time isn’t fooling anyone, let alone a Deity that’s supposed to be Omniscient.)
I can’t say with confidence that I know for an absolute fact from one article that he is Satan-Spawn or that the mother who jailed him is either at the end of her rope or just incompetent.
I do know that at least in my state, the Family Court System was designed to determine what is in the best interests of the child. It could well be that this child would be better off elsewhere; whether that’s in a state institution or just in the hands of competent foster parents I’d be willing to leave in the hands of case-workers more familiar with the family situation.
Huh. I must be the only one who snooped for presents. and if it wasn’t wrapped, sure as shit I’d have played with it. I see he’s already got some record for theft etc, but criminey, present snooping?
wring, the kid broke into the house next door that belongs to the Great Grandmother. This is not a case of snooping in your parents attic or closet. I think it is a little more serious.
I also agree with Count Blucher that the Mom should have realized from her own complaints, that it was not a good idea to leave this twelve year old by himself.
Don’t juvenile records get sealed after the kid hits 18?
Anyway, have you ever dealt with a twelve year old discipline problem? Kids can be freaking nightmares at that age. Particularly without a strong male presence in the household, a 12 year old male is strong enough that he might actually be a physical danger to his mother. Calling the cops is likely to put the fear of god into him a lot faster than church will. And this kid is no jewel – he’s already getting expelled from school from taking a swing at a cop.
yea, I caught that. BUt, unless grandma was estranged, (and it seemed not), I suspect that both families were in and out of each others houses quite a bit. marginally more serious, depending on the nature of “broke in” (which can include “used the key I have w/o specific permission to be in there” vs. “Broke down the door w/a sledgehammer”). If the kid broke down doors or broke a window to gain entry, ok. But if it’s more of a case of ‘he didn’t have specific permission to be in there’, I’m back to ‘kid acting like kid’.
I went back and checked the articles. One mentions the kid taking the present from the hiding place in Grandma’s house and one mentions unwrapping the present from under the tree. This leaves me a little confused.
Maybe it was not so terrible, I have to believe the one article is wrong though. Why would the cops bother if it was only under the tree.
You are likely right and the mother had her kid just a little too soon and heck, maybe her mom did, too! But you don’t know that for sure and you shouldn’t leap to conclusions. This happens to me a lot. As my boyfriend would tell you, you are paying for the sins of another with this statement.
I turned 31 last week. I have a 16 year old that will be 17 in April and a 14 year old that will be 15 next week. Their grandmother is 52, their great-grandmother is 72 and their great-great grandmother is 90. I get looks all the time about this and have even had many, many comments made by complete strangers in the store and out in other public venues. Even people who do know me a little seem taken aback when they start doing the math, until I’m forced to explain to them that my daughters are from my ex-husband’s first marriage and when he and I divorced, I got custody of them. My family and myself have taken care of those girls since they were itty bitty children and I AM their mother. Yet everyone immediately assumes that I was some 14 year old girl flat on her back pregnant.
We don’t know about this part of her situation, and even if she did have the kid at 15, I’m sure she more than realizes by now that she should have gone about things differently. I see why your point is valid in a way, but it’s really not fair to judge someone in a situation that you can only guess the reasons for.
Sorry, I probably went overboard with my argument, but I get tired of people assuming the worst.
You are correct of course, and I am aware there are exceptions. I do think your situation is more likely to be the wonderful exception and not the rule however.
The church thing sort of made me giggle- it totally reminded me of what my mom would always tell me. She’d say, “Angel, if you ever get arrested for doing something bad, don’t call me. You’re safer in there than with me.”
So what if she made him sit in there for a bit? Jail is punishment, after all. Let him sit there and see what real criminals are like and that maybe, just maybe, there isn’t really a pay out for breaking the rules.
I read the article, not a God or Jesus or church mentioned. WTF? Have I stumbled onto a religious message board?