Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Kids Today

Too often kids today are at the mercy of stupid parents which then, in my opinion, leads to situations like this.




Once again I have many questions:

1. why is the 6 year old up by themselves?
2. why does the 6 year old know where the keys to the car are?
3. why is the 6 year old playing Grand Theft Auto?
4. why does the 6 year old not want to miss breakfast at school?
5. how as the parent are you asleep while your child is getting ready for school?

Now if this were a teenager, then I would lay some blame at the foot of the teen because they would be of an age to know better. They would be of an age to be held accountable for their own actions, and be of an age to reason for themselves and know right from wrong. This however was not a teen, this was a 6 year old child.

Maybe I am being too harsh, but if you have a small child then no matter how tired you are, you make sure they GET ON THE BUS, before you go to your bed. At 6 years old there would be no way my child was roaming my house alone or waiting for a bus alone. Sorry, not going to happen. Until I see them safely on the bus then I should be up with them. If for some reason the bus is missed or does not come then it is my responsibility as the parent to get them to school.

Granted this is all hypothetical because I do not have children, but I have watched my niece and nephews and when they got up, I got up. I made breakfast, saw that everyone was dressed and ready, then waited for each bus, and walked them to the bus when it came. Only after each one was off to school did I go back and lie down for a bit. To me that is just common sense.

3 comments:

metgirl4ever said...

gurl i heard about this while driving to work this morning. . .why is a 6yr old playing that game?? & i'm w/you, why are the parents asleep?? they should be greatful the police found him, this is how kids get kidnapped, not that i wish that on anyone, but come on people, watch after your children like the precious gifts they are!!

Anonymous said...

How tall was this kid that he could reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel?? I agree that a 6 year old probably shouldn't be playing grand theft auto...or responsible for getting himself off to school, but I don't think the parents should lose custody of the kids or get prosecuted for child endangerment. I don't have any kids myself but I could imagine that it's kind of tough to predict all of the things a 6 year old might come up with to do. Yeah the parents should have been up to see him off, but this could have happened any time of day. Say the parent just took a nap or something. You can't watch a child 24-7. What's to stop a 6 year old from thinking they can just drive themself to the store when you doze off. No one see's the postive that a 6 year old was self motivated enough to get up and get himself dressed for school! I can barely do that myself for work and I'm 32. And the parents probably weren't thinking they needed to hide their keys from a 6 year old child to keep them from driving themselves to school. I say the parents should get a lecture at the most and the kid should get a stern talking to about how dangerous what he did was. A 6 year old should be able to understand that.

Auntie Mone said...

Well that is the thing with a child that young, they CANNOT be left unattended because there is no accounting for what they will do. Sure they can find the keys, but they sure are not making it out of the house and getting to the car. I applaud the fact that the kid was so interested in going to school, however the responsibility for the welfare of the child rests in the hands of the parents and in this case there was gross negligence. Until that child set foot on the bus an adult should have been supervising. Call it harsh, but having and raising children comes with the understanding that until they are of an age to reason and take care of themselves you as the parent are ultimately responsible for them and if you do not take care of them then you have to understand that you are liable to lose them. Children are a blessing and a gift, treat them as such or don't bother having them.