Kids....

Yesterday, in response to my posting, Trojan wrote:

"You are obviously not a parent of a teenager yourself, it is impossible to keep watch over someone 24/7 what are they supposed to do, chain him up? Neither of us know all the facts yet you come out with all these assumptions, when the parents are probably just a normal loving couple whose son has gone off the rails leaving them at the end of their tether."

Our two boys are now in their twenties, but when they were 13 we knew where they were and what they were doing. Thirteen is barely out of childhood and, whilst I accept the point that teenagers as a class can be very trying, I also suspect there's a reason why this boy has "gone off the rails" to use Trojan's expression. But he's right in that we don't know even a fraction of the facts behind the case. However, there is a trend that 'parents' are increasingly expecting others to look after their children which is - in my view - wrong. It's also interesting that when instances of children running away are investigated, almost inevitably there's more to the case than meets the eye and that usually has to do with flawed parenting. In this case, I'd be happy to be proved wrong, but I wonder....