Responsible parenting? If the kid actually had title of the car and is over 18 she is lucky he doesn’t sue her. He is no longer a minor(being over 18) and should be treated like an adult, not a child. I wish the article had the phone number because I would call the kid and inform him of HIS LEGAL RIGHTS…goody two shoes mom DOES need to get a life and let her child grow-up. She has had 18 years of input, leave him be and let’s see what her time as a parent has produced.
So you think when a teerager turns 18, he or she should be pushed out on the street with a high school diploma and the clothes on her or his back? I am thinkful my parents offered me a college education and the use of a car in their name if I agreed to their terms. I hope your 18 year old sons and daughters are good at asking “Would you like fries with that?”
After working himself through college, my father came to value the ability to offer his children an opportunity to be full time students. I am glad he didn’t decide to leave me be as soon as I turned 18. If every American parent followed your blueprint, there would be very few college graduates and we would loose even more jobs overseas.
I think I’ll just wait until the mom shows up on the jerry springer show to make her case.
The whole idea of being mature at a specific age is very, very recent. Until that point, a person was not considered an adult until he or she passed a rite of passage. It started with the Middle Ages, where a young boy would be indentured as a squire at age 14, and after 7 years, would become a knight.
My point is maturity doesn’t always associate with an age. Some people are adults at age 18, others at age 15, others at age 30.
Since the 19 year old agreed to the terms, and he violated the terms of the agreement, the mom is in the right to take his car. I believe part of being an adult is keeping true to your word.
Masterwrench, you are right, but keep in mind that the parent’s LEGAL OBLIGATION to take care of the kids ends at age 18 also. If my kids want to be independent from my rules, they can be independent. We have discussed this, and they already know to be careful what they ask for.
Kudos to another long-suffering parent (think about your Mother& FatherJ) who stepped up to the plate. I?m guessing her kid did/said something during their ?discussion? to prompt the public airing of their situation.
You need to take a class, pass a test, and get a license to drive a car but nothing is required to raise a kid. We al do our best to raise our children but there is always that parent that, for whatever reason, fails to meet their obligation of parenting. One bad kid in school is toxic and has can negatively influence and affect other kids who were responsibly raised. IMHO we all pay for the bad job of that odd AWOL parent. IMHO, the laissez faire (?let your kid do anything he/she wants? or ?lazy chicken___ ?) style of parenting is responsible for a lot of the problems our children face in school.
It?s tough enough to raise a good kid with all the crazy stuff normal kids do. How many of you know friends and family that have been hit by drunken drivers? How many of you know friends and family that have been crippled killed by drunk drivers? When was the last time you didn?t see a weekend news story about underage drinking and driving accidents and the ?collateral? damage inflicted on the people they hit? Somehow, the humor of this story was lost as I thought about friends lost.
This mean mother gets a heartfelt ?thank you? and ?job well done? from me.
I seen that ‘meanest mom’ and son on the ‘Ellen’ show today.
She did own the car he drove. She went to the college to visit him and while in the parking lot, thought…I’m going to check the car. First thing she found was the car was left unlocked.
Rule #1 broken.
Then she remembered her ‘NO booze in the car’ rule. She looked under the drivers seat and found a part bottle of Smirnoff(sp?) vodka.
After talking with her son and his friend, it was said her son had given his ‘tipsy’ friend a ride home and did not know the bottle was there. (It turned out the ‘tipsy’ friend had thrown the bottle under the seat before the son got in the car and forgot to tell him)
The point she says she was making in selling the car was that “it shows I love my son”.
I imagine she was referring to the law against having open liquor in a vehicle.
The son wasn’t too upset about it all and just before they left Ellens’ stage, Ellen gave him a bumper sticker that reads ‘How’s my driving?’ with the phone # underneath and also one that says ‘My mom’s meaner than yours!’
He also got a couple of other things as well.
But the first thing that popped into my head was this thread when I heard who Ellen was having on.
I guess I was wrong, I predicted she would turn up on the Jerry Springer show. Close enough. (-;
WTH? I looked for my original post and didn’t see it so I wrote a repeat and posted only to find the original showed up as I posted again!
Now, thanks to an incomplete editing link on this site, I cannot delete the complete post once posted. Wonderful.