manwithblackhat on June 2, 2008 at 1:40 PM

Your story brought a tear or three…

I’m very happy for the both of you.

You are 110% right about what is needed.

TheCulturalist on June 2, 2008 at 9:18 AM

Most of my son’s problems (drugs, alcohol, stealing Mom’s car) occurred in his first two years of high school. His mother left me when he was five. And although I had joint custody, in Virginia that’s pretty meaningless. So while he was going through all this stuff, and was virtually estranged from me, I would call the school nearly every week. I’d call his teachers. I’d visit them without him knowing. I always knew what was going on, and he couldn’t figure out why. And while I was powerless during that time, it didn’t last forever.

By the time he finished his junior year, he was a recovering alcoholic, and told me in a rehab session that he wanted me back in his life. Because I had been following him stealthily for two or three years, I already knew what to do. That summer, we went to Seattle, which was sort of his “vision quest.” When he started senior year, he signed up for philosophy. This didn’t sit well with me, being an “old-school” Catholic. So I taught him philosophy too, with taped lectures, and homework assignments. In his first quarter, he was an “A” student for the first time since sixth grade. He read Plato’s Republic, he read Tolstoy, he read De Tocqueville — all without them being assigned.

After working for a couple of years, he’s completing his first year as an honor student (well, most of the time) at the Art Institute. He works full time on top of that — ironically, as a bartender. Ironic, because he celebrated his sixth anniversary of sobriety a few weeks ago.

Only a clueless society raises clueless kids. They desperately want our attention, whether they admit it or not. There is a particular challenge facing African-American families today, and it’s not poverty. Generations of poor managed to avoid lives of crime and depravity. It’s the caché that’s associated with the “ghetto” mystique. Kids in the suburbs, in homes worth over 500K, are acting like they’re deprived, and it’s simply ridiculous.

But in our usual fit of PC, we buy into it. (Well, not you guys.)

The funniest saddest part is that this scenario is “newsworthy.”

VolMagic on June 1, 2008 at 4:20 PM

Fixed it…

What my wife and I hear all the time is “Wow, what great kids you have!” This usually follows them observing our boys ask say “excuse me” when they want our attention while we are speaking with someone, or that they ask permission to have candy/cookies/etc prior to eating something good for them. The people that say this are often parents of children who have absolutely no self control and have never been provided with a framework for proper behavior. They come from the school of “thought” that all things in life are related to luck. You are lucky if you do well in school, have a good job, have well behaved children, etc. They just don’t get it. It isn’t that they are “bad”. They are just clueless. I could give some more specific examples of stupid parent tricks that I observed just this weekend at a local park, but I’ll spare myself and ya’ll from the blood pressure raising details.

I DISAPPROVE!

Shoulda taken a belt to the little bastard first, then made him do it.

MadisonConservative on June 1, 2008 at 4:08 PM

Damned straight. I’d've kicked a new crack in that bastard’s ass.

The “D” hat is a beautiful touch, though.

gridlock2 on June 2, 2008 at 6:53 AM

The modern variation of the cone “dunce” hat. LOL I love old fashioned moms.

The “D” hat is a beautiful touch, though.

I can vouch for that. I could tell you a hundred stories, but I’ll spare you.

Saltysam on June 1, 2008 at 11:18 PM

I’ve probably heard variations.

I’m waiting for some lib to propose a long-term solution to this problem: supply iPods to every American (and illegal alien) so there will be no iPod jealousy and therefore no iPod-related crimes. (Taxpayer-funded program, of course.) And don’t think you’ll be allowed to keep your top-of-the-line iPod. Those who have the government-supplied Shuffles might become jealous of your 160Gig iPod Classic, so you’ll have to give that up in the interest of Marxism fairness.

aero on June 1, 2008 at 5:13 PM

SAY NO to the I-POD GAP!

Good for Mumsy…she likely knows there may be a bad crowd within the neighborhood that he would end up in, unless she did something he would remember. Doing this would solve two things. Teaching him a lesson he will never forget, and letting any thug-wannabe in the neighborhood know that Mumsy means bidness!

Good thing he’s not living under shari’a law, huh?

Connie on June 1, 2008 at 10:10 PM

Islam is very liberal. When it comes to theft, they have a hands-off attitude.

Plus there’s the daily punishment of being called Montavius.

I like it.

I can vouch for that. I could tell you a hundred stories, but I’ll spare you.

Do the people who think this is a fine way to discipline a child also dig the mom’s taking a victory lap on the local news? Was that done out of love, too?

If he never does it again, it will have been worth it. My question is, if it’s not enough later on, and his pals pressure him into bigger things when he gets older, can she keep turning up the heat?

Connie knocks it out of the park.

Mama probably did take a belt to the kid.

thekingtut on June 1, 2008 at 6:29 PM

No. No. No.

It’s like this:

“The belt is here waiting for you if you take the sign off and leave the streetside. It will be used until you get yer’ ass back out there. “