When do you turn to authorities for help with kids?
I was talking with a group of moms about a news brief that appeared in our paper Wednesday regarding a South Carolina mother who had sicced the police on her 12-year-old for nosing through his great-grandmother's house, finding his Christmas present (a Game Boy) and playing with it. A little extreme, we thought.
There's more to the story. The family has had a lot of problems - the boy has stolen money from his mother, he's inching toward expulsion from school, he has shoplifted, he was arrested for disorderly conduct and he punched a cop. The mother said she didn't know what else to do, and that she dreads the day she'll get a phone call saying he's been killed. It's heartbreaking. She's going to try and have him placed with the state's Department of Juvenile Justice.
I don't know all the details or family dynamics in this case. But how do parents deal with having to say they can't handle a child? It must be awful to hand over your kid to a juvenile justice system, or a boot camp. When is tough love the only, or at least the best, option?
There's more to the story. The family has had a lot of problems - the boy has stolen money from his mother, he's inching toward expulsion from school, he has shoplifted, he was arrested for disorderly conduct and he punched a cop. The mother said she didn't know what else to do, and that she dreads the day she'll get a phone call saying he's been killed. It's heartbreaking. She's going to try and have him placed with the state's Department of Juvenile Justice.
I don't know all the details or family dynamics in this case. But how do parents deal with having to say they can't handle a child? It must be awful to hand over your kid to a juvenile justice system, or a boot camp. When is tough love the only, or at least the best, option?
3 Comments:
St. Monica prayed for her wayward and very sinful son for 20 years. Her reward? Her son repented, returned to the Church and eventually even became a bishop. We Catholics consider him, St. Augustine, a giant because of the influence he had on our Church and on our faith.
With respect to this wayward 12 year-old in South Carolina, what better example could we ask for than that of St. Monica, a woman that never quit on her son? We should pray for this child and his family. We should pray for all children that are at risk. And when we are done praying, we should cling our own children just a little bit tighter as we pray for them.
"Without making any judgements on these parents..." -- Margaret
Parents? As is plural? As in more than one?
I'd be willing to bet, Margaret, that there is no father present in the home where this 12 year-old resides. But then again, asking, "Where is this child's father?" is oh-so-politically-incorrect. Just ask Dan Quayle.
There was a leaflet I picked up at a 12 step meeting called: "Merrygoround Called Denial." It discouraged us from thowing out cushions to soften the blow when our alcoholic loved one is on his/her way toward hitting bottom. It never suggested that we help them hit bottom by calling the police etc., but if you are the object of the attack, theft, or what have you, I don't know whether calling them would be out of order. It's a hard place to be, raising an out of control 12 year old.
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