Hardly a day goes by when I don’t put two and two together and come up with – it’s the parents, stupid!
Earlier this year it was reported in the press that a 12-year-old boy was left in charge of a 17-month-old and another child, aged about 10. Newspaper reports have yet to state whether an adult was present in the house.
The 12-year-old has confessed to beating the 17-month-old to death because she was crying while he was watching TV!
Several years ago a young boy wrestled to death an unrelated 6‑year-old girl who was being cared for in his home. The boy’s mother was asleep in the house, she was a county sheriff and has never been held culpable in this case. I assume that she was the person who agreed that the child would be in her home?
In both these cases the adults who made the decision to leave a 12-year-old in charge of younger children used poor judgement and they should be paying the price, not the young person who actually did the deed.
Teenagers in my town beat a homeless man to death –‘for the fun of it’?
I know of a 15-year-old who broke into his uncle’s empty home and, while both sets of parents were away together, the boy had a party with 30 or 40 friends. He has confessed and there is clear evidence that he’d made a plan some days before hand. His parents, his government employed lawyer father and private school administrator mother, did not return immediately from their holiday to take care of this situation and his younger sister. Nor did his brother and wife who were with them and are the parents of the two young cousins, both under age 7, in whose empty house the party took place!!
When the boy’s paternal grandmother deemed it too much for her to handle (she — a lawyer no less!! — was left in charge of all four of her grandchildren: the 15 year old perpetrator, his younger sister and two girls cousins under age 7) all four children were dispatched to the boy’s maternal aunt who lived an hour away!
Why is it that we expect the poor of this country to act responsibly towards their children when even the educated, and I assume otherwise respected (and supposedly responsible?) members of the community, amongst us can’t do it?
Parents have to step up to the plate.
Your children, or those in your care, should come before your naptime or your holiday!