Quote Originally Posted by DDH
My problem is with parents that don't seem to care, and where I live, I see a lot of it. I see children 3 or 4 outside with no fence, playing by themselves.
I see children who are allowed to be disrespectful, or rude, and then when I see their parents I know why. Children are not the culprits as much as parents are. Children are only doing as much or little as their parents allow. I know that there are always exceptions to the rule. There are some great parents out there that have tried everything and still seem to have troubles with their children. I see many more parents that have no business having children that have these great kids. For the most part though, children are a reflection of their parents.
Absolutely! In our street a couple of years ago, we had the family from hell. The eldest was accused several times of interfering with younger children but was never prosecuted because of lack of evidence, he also had a fight with his father and pushed his father down the stairs causing brain-damage - his mother refused to tell the police what her son had done (Mummy's little darling couldn't do any wrong) so the police couldn't arrest him for attempted murder and she and her husband subsequently split up, the middle son took a delight in terrifying the elderly and infirm in our street, setting the beautiful woodland behind our houses on fire killing many small animals, vandalising cars (including £1400 of damage to mine) and people's homes. The youngest, a girl, was as bad as her brother and had a mouth like a sewer. The cause? Their mother. From the time they were born she let them get their own way in everything. If they did wrong at school, she went to the school and caused more trouble. Eventually, all three of them were expelled from school and sent to a special school for problem children.

Eventually, the eldest thankfully moved in with a girlfriend and away from our street. However, the other two continued to wreak havoc on our street - one time watched by their mother - who did - nothing! By this time the whole street had had enough. Most of us are Council tenants but some own their houses privately. We formed a Residents Association and several of us installed CCTV cameras. I don't know how people deal with this type of problem in the States, but we needed to actually prove that it was these two and their friends causing the damage. Didn't take long. The upshot was the whole family were evicted from their house for anti-social behaviour.

Since then, we have heard that the youngest got pregnant (she was 14) and had an abortion. The middle son became a drug addict and because of it he had a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair for some time. He is only 19 years old. I have heard he has recently got married so the whole circle will probably start all over again.

Both parents, but particularly the mother has failed these children miserably. Seemingly, the father would attempt to discipline the kids, either by smacking them or stopping their priviledges, but the mother would intervene and contradict anything he said. It was a no-win situation, especially for the kids.

If the mother had smacked them when they were young or instilled discipline in them by stopping their priviledges etc., then they might have had a future as decent young adults. As it is, all of them suffered, especially the kids, but also the mother as she lost her husband and even yet, people see her in town and point the finger at her.

Very sad.