As it happens, I have a twelve year-old daughter, and I cannot conceive of her doing something so incredibly stupid. Okay, I know that parents do tend to not see the failings of their little darlings, but the fact this boy apparently believed it was okay to steal someone's car and he was sure that he was capable of driving it says a huge amount about how his parents have raised him.
I suspect that when your colleague says he can't control everything his kids do, what he actually means is that he believes it's unreasonable for anyone to expect him to have much of a relationship at all with them. It may be grossly unfair, but I imagine him as one of those fathers who's far more interested in sinking cool ones with his high school buds and watching sports on TV than he is in spending time with his kids, trying to instil some basic values in them and teaching them about life and responsibility.
In fact, I wouldn't be hugely surprised if, as much as he's whining about the injustice of this, he's secretly quite proud that Jim-Bob Jr has already stolen his first car and had his first brush with the law. Chip off the ol' block, and all that.
Maybe you should ask him how he'd feel if some punk kid stole his car and crashed it. I bet he won't just shrug.
Should parents be held responsible for their kids' mistakes?
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I'm sitting here with my jaw hanging.
As it happens, I have a twelve year-old daughter, and I cannot conceive of her doing something so incredibly stupid. Okay, I know that parents do tend to not see the failings of their little darlings, but the fact this boy apparently believed it was okay to steal someone's car and he was sure that he was capable of driving it says a huge amount about how his parents have raised him.
I suspect that when your colleague says he can't control everything his kids do, what he actually means is that he believes it's unreasonable for anyone to expect him to have much of a relationship at all with them. It may be grossly unfair, but I imagine him as one of those fathers who's far more interested in sinking cool ones with his high school buds and watching sports on TV than he is in spending time with his kids, trying to instil some basic values in them and teaching them about life and responsibility.
In fact, I wouldn't be hugely surprised if, as much as he's whining about the injustice of this, he's secretly quite proud that Jim-Bob Jr has already stolen his first car and had his first brush with the law. Chip off the ol' block, and all that.
Maybe you should ask him how he'd feel if some punk kid stole his car and crashed it. I bet he won't just shrug.