'Incorrigible' 10-year-old arrested at mom's insistence(Florida)

St Pete Times ^ | 07/06/2006 | Mallory Simon

[Froufrou]

Yes, hasty generalizations are no help for single moms, regardless of the cause of their being single. Not all single moms are bad moms.

[windcliff]

ping

[MountainMenace]

Dead right!

[absolootezer0]

Remember: Hillary and others have come out in favor of 'Children's Rights' as opposed to 'Parental Rights' wherein there is an assumption of guilt of the adult. It takes a village, ie. society has an interest in the manner in which the child is reared and supercedes the wishes of the parent.

that what's nice about MI. no blood, no broken bones, no bruising.. CPS walks away. corporal punishment is accepable here for your children.

[pabianice]

Only eight more years and he can register as a Democrat...

[xsmommy]

OMG,where did you get that? it always hung in the bathroom behind the door. my dad never had to use it, we knew it was there!!!

[FearlessFreep]

You are correct. Some people can not be helped.
Look at Lionel Tate.

[redlocks322]

I went through very much the same thing with my youngest. Rage fits, years of psychiatrists, medications, anger management, etc. I've lost jobs, husbands, friends, you name it. People can say whatever they want "give me a week with him" my boss likes to say - however, until you LIVE IT, you don't have a clue! I broke down and called the cops on my son about 4 months ago after he punched a hole in the wall in a fit of anger - it worked wonders - gave him a dose of real life that my spankings and groundings and taking things away could never do. He hasn't had another meltdown since - not at home, not at school. I even got a compliment on him from the city pool personnell on how well behaved he has become... now when his "cop friend" drops by, he loves it cause he has positive reports to give him. (He doesn't know that the cop was a friend of my husband's) but those handcuffs and sitting in the cop car for 45 minutes sure turned him around.

I applaud this mother for doing what she did. It hurts deeply to do it - I know it does - but you have to do what you have to do to help your kids. I don't think she's giving up, I think she's getting tough.

I hope the young man learns a lesson and doesn't make the same mistake again.

[JavaTheHutt]

You haven't been around FR very long, have you? Threads like these draw the usual suspects, all ready to draw conclusions without having relevant info.

Only about 5 years. I'm familiar with the pattern here, it just never ceases to amaze me. When faced with little or no information, there's a large percentage that will always jump to a negative conclusion.

What about all the women who are now single parents due to husbands being killed in the war on terror? I'm sure these people wouldn't criticize those womenfor being single parents, yet without knowing all the details here, they feel free to criticize this woman.

[TheBattman]

The single mother

Strike One...

She said her son began beating her at age 6 with a Nerf baseball bat that had a metal rod inside.

Strike two - she did nothing to fix the problem when he was still young enough to "make an impression on".

"Everyone's felt so bad because he's so young that nobody wants to press charges, but that doesn't help him," the mother said. "Apparently, he's trying to act like an adult, so he needs to be treated that way and learn he can't do these things."

They are just following the example YOU set regarding the discipline of your child (or lack thereof).

Just another case of poor/non-existant parenting forcing the state to step-in to take care of the MOTHER'S responsibility.

[marsh2]

Ever watch the Nanny? Many parents of today have a disconnect concerning effective ways to discipline their children. Some let them have their way as an alternative to beating the ?$% out of them. They don't have a clue about in between alternatives.

In our County, we have several types of parenting classes we offer. Many are interactive and involve actually modelling of technique and coaching of parent with child. Sounds like she would have benfitted from one of these. In many counties, your child has to be in the system before you are eligible for help.

[Froufrou]

Kudos for your determination. I'm guessing that your boy was perhaps a little older when your intervention succeeded? Not minimizing your success in any way, but the age of the child will have some factor in the success of a plan.

There are so many variables and you sound as if you tried many more times to get the boy on the right track than did this woman. I don't criticize this mom, but I don't think we have the whole picture, either.

[twigs]

Good point. I agree. People are complex and so are situations. I hope the best for this young man and his frightened family.

[sandbar]

Now I know that spanking might do this boy some good, but let's assume for once that this kid MIGHT be mentally ill. People don't wake up at 18 *become* mentally ill.

[MineralMan]

"What about all the women who are now single parents due to husbands being killed in the war on terror? "

Well...they should head down to their church and marry the first single man they find there. /sarc

[Publius6961]

"I pray to God it will," she said "No matter how bad it gets, you just have to be a parent and give unconditional love."

Some human 'mothers' need spaying really really badly...

[Littlejon]

Bad parenting could be the cause, but the article states that the woman has an 11 year old child who, based on the little evidence given, seems to be just fine. Since we don't know the background information, such as who the father is, why he left, was the kid adopted, was he dropped on his head at birth or any of the pertinent details, how can we assume it is just "bad parenting"?

A classic example is with a well-known murderer in my town that made national headlines a few years back. Fritz Klenner (Bitter Blood) was from a prominent family. His father was a very respected phyician, who was quite the disciplinarian. (Don't believe what you've read about him being nuts - He wasn't and neither was his wife)

'Ol Fritz ended up lying about going to Duke for med school, forged documents showing he had a medical degree, slept around with his cousin (whose family was equally prominent) and finally ended up killing several of her family members before blowing himself, her and her kids up after a police chase.

Sometimes kids are just screwed up. This kid could have been wired wrong. His dad could have abused him as an infant, causing mental problems. He could have been adopted by this mother, being born from drug addicts or abusers. We don't know. If the woman seriously feared for her life, then she probably did the only thing she could and finally pressed charges.

Frankly, I prefer a mother who is willing to press charges when the kid does something like this than one who doesn't think little Johnny's crap stinks and bails him out of everything he does.

[Doohickey]

As a productive, law-abiding citizen with a familiy of my own who just happened to grow up in a single-parent home, I've given up explaining that to these ninnies. Children who grow up in single-parent homes commit crimes because they make crappy choices. Period.

The social and behavioral issues that not having a father in the home is the subject of another thread, so I'll not go into that here except to say that they don't involve criminal behavior.

[Colofornian]

Obviously, this boy needs a good lecture. If Mom would just reason with him, and appeal to the inherent goodness within him, then...

[trimom]

Thanks....I have been taking a whacking on my opinion!