Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Fining Parents for Decisions of Children

Thank you to the enlightened individual who finally brought to light the fact that parents are to blame for everything. Fining parents when their underage children attempt to purchase alcohol is absolute genius. The dialogue that will run through the offending child’s mind will likely be as follows: “I would like to obtain my own adult beverage at the local liquor store. Oh, but wait, if I get caught my parents will be punished. Goodness, I would hate for that to happen. They are such wonderful parents. Over the past seventeen years they have provided me with all I need to be successful. It would hurt me terribly if they had to pay a fine because of my poor choice. I think I will have a cup of water instead.”



If this were the case, they would not attempt the purchase in the first place. They would be too worried about disappointing their family. Sadly, the adolescent mind does not operate in this manner. Parents paying a fine for their child’s mistake would have about the same effect as fining the state governor for the stupidity of their constituents. Unless the offender is directly affected, they will not learn their lesson.


Punishing the offender is the only way to address the problem. Have the child perform community service that is connected to their offense. Make them suffer the consequences.


Those who feel it is the parents’ fault need to rethink their position. Parents cannot know where their teens are at all times. Believe it or not, teens lie about where they are. The only way to “track” them and know their whereabouts at any given time would be to insert some sort of tracking device under their skin. That sort of action seems to be frowned upon by most logical people.


If a law must be passed, gear it toward punishing the offender. Maybe the time and energy spent on creating this bill would be better placed on real issues: parents who do not feed their children, parents who ignore their children, parents who teach their children to do drugs…those seem like issues that truly do deserve our attention and action by our state legislature. Start fining those people and a transformation will take place.