Kids these daysFollow

This story involves a four year old, a dress and beer.

The mother says he is looking for his father. I happen to know a 6 year old child in my neighborhood who displays a similar type of behavior (the one I know is now in a blended family that I think is pretty miserable right now). I know for a fact that this kid doesn't go to sleep, or passes out rather, until ~2AM.

In the findings section of a Virginia Commission Report (which should be marked V in the table of contents /fume) named Incarcerated Parents, it states


Am I the only one who thinks the problem is not the fact that the father is incarcerated, but just poor parenting by the parent who isn't absent (to include poor communication)? I think this is extreme behavior and there are other problems rooted deeper within his psyche. Just packaging the problem with what is believed to be (and not proven to be) a root cause is just making things worse.

Without knowing anything about the mother, it's impossible to say. Four year olds, even well behaved and disciplined ones, have pretty alien thought processes compared to adults. Lack of filters, undeveloped sense of cause & effect, behavior mimicking, etc means that something you'd never dream of can sound like a pretty good idea to them.

For all I know, this kid has the worst mother in the world. But it sounds as though she took more precautions than I ever did with my kid (special child safety locks on the doors) so who knows? I think we've developed a knee-jerk "blame the parents" response in these situations, using even just standard "kids acting like idiot kids" behavior as an excuse to say how much better we'd be as parents.

Edit: It should go without saying that the kid should now be disciplined and made to understand that breaking & entry (etc) is not acceptable behavior.

Edited, Dec 17th 2009 11:49am by Jophiel

If anything it sounds like he could use some better male role models.

This.

There's nothing new under the sun. Kids aren't any worse these days than they used to be. Some are even better. My son never stole his dad's stock drag-racing car and took it to a neighboring high school to show off. And neither did I.

NOOOO it's the end of the world!!! How can't you understand.

You do.

How long has Tennessee recognized gay marriage, because I believe this salesman sounds like a man-seeking man?