I say that in the long run these parents are doing their kids a disservice. Placing bugs in a kids car won't teach them to act responsably when they become an adult
I raised two girls in the Bay Area. My eldest was given a small car to drive to school since it was a fair distance and there were no safe bus rides. I found out years later that she was skipping school at least one day a week and taking a carload of kids to Santa Cruz for the day. Exactly what lesson in responsibility did she learn from that experience?
"I say that in the long run these parents are doing their kids a disservice."
I don't know. I remember being 17 at parties. Unfortunatedly some of my deceased classmates aren't here to say the same.
I don't think so. Controlling a kid's whereabouts has a big effect on who they associate with, and that has a big effect on what kind of adults they turn into.
The end justifies the means when you're a "responsible" parent. The end is protection and guidance; not blind trust.
In fact, liberals foster a sense of blind trust in kids, especially those of early voting age.
Allowing the kid to lie to her parents and get away with it for their teen years is not teaching her responsibility or a good life habit, either.
What it is teaching her is that her negative actions have consequences, and that if you keep lying long enough, you'll get caught. Seems a valuable lesson to me.
The kid is just pi$$ed off that she got caught in an 'unfair' way. I know when I got caught trying to put something over on my folks I was upset but I didn't have a leg to stand on because I was lying. They didn't seem to care how they found out, 'unfairly' or not.
Bingo! I was alittle more verbose in my post; and am waiting with Nomex and Kevlar on.
It's not either-or. A responsible balance of privacy and monitoring teaches the right lessons -- you're free to do as you wish, and you are responsible for your actions. Get caught breaking the rules, and there will be consequences.
Not only that, but once you're caught once, it will be a long time (if ever) before you're trusted again.
That's not a bad lesson for living in the real world.
I say that in the long run these parents are doing their kids a disservice.<<<<<<<<<<
I disagree. Having parents who hold them accountable and check out their stories tells them their parents aren't their buddies, they are responsible people who aren't stupid. They will likely hate them until grown, but what else is new?
It also gives the kids an excuse when they are being pressured to do stupid things ("I'd race you in a minute, but the old man/old lady will find out, so I'll pass..")The kids who were allowed complete freedom who wanted to hang out with my kids soon learned I was their worst nightmare, and they learned not to be giving my kids anything illegal to hold onto for them because I'd find it and they'd all be in big trouble, my kids included. My own kids are responsible citizens as adults, so something worked right.