Meanest mom on the planet...
 

From <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/odd_car_ad">Yahoo Weird News...</a>

So... whaddayathink? Mean mom, or tough love? She set the rules, and they were broken. And remember, all our friends in Europe and the rest of the world... here in the States, we teach people to drive *before* we teach them to drink.

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I would say tough love and a responsible parent. He broke the rules, and let his friend convince him to give him a drive with the booze.

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I'd have to side with the mom on this one.

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True, he broke the rules and alcohol in cars is never a good idea, so fair enough that he get punished. But I do think on one level she may have been pushing the punishment a little too far, deciding to tell the whole world about it.

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Perhaps, but it's no worse than the celebrities get with the tabloids watching their every move.

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..better than burying the kid in the car..

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Mom did two things with this. She got a DUI off the road and taught the kid that there are rules to live by.

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This reminds me of a funny incident that happened to a former classmate. She went home drunk one time in high school and got caught by her parents. They took her down to the police station to get a breathalyzer test.

As to the article, I didn't see where it said who paid for the car originally. Now, I'm gonna have to guess that it was the parents' money that got the car, in part at least, so that makes it perfectly within rights for her to sell the thing. It's a hard lesson for the kid, but maybe he'll learn something from it.

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Second to last paragraph... she set two rules when she bought him the car at Thanksgiving...

As I think about it, it's a lot less costly to have Mom take away your car than to have the nice officers take away your car... and possibly your freedom, too.

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Ah, but WW, it's in the print. Did it go fuzzy whilst you read it? :cheers:

"Hambleton believes her son but has decided mercy isn't the best policy in this case. She says she set two rules when she bought the car at Thanksgiving: No booze, and always keep it locked."

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Go mom. Its good that there are responsible parents like that out there- though I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to be in that situation.. or be that mom's son. lol


And

Teach to drink after learning to drive? Surely you kid, most of my senior hs class knew how to drink before they even touched the steering wheels of a car :D

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You were drinking at 10? What has this world come to? :biggrin:

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I'm referring to the legal precedence... that you can drive at 16 in the States, but drink at 21. In other places, you can drink much earlier, allowing young folks to figure out how to drink properly before they get behind the wheel...

IOW, the current plan in the States *encourages* people between 16 and 21 to drink covertly........

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In other-otherwords, they never learn to enjoy their booze responsibly before hitting the road. Usually end up on the road sloshed, and worst-case scenario sloshing someone across the road.

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Exactly, and said so much better than I feebly attempted to do...

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<font color=lime>Good for her! She may be the meanest to her son, but regarding this, she is the best! :thumbsup: </font>

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Fair enough taking the car back off of him, but is there really any need to humiliate him? Running the ad for an extra week (even after selling the car) simply for the feedback?.. She could turn herself into the world's most unloved mum.

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<font color=lime>"Shock and Awe". He won't forget, and knows his mom will follow through in dealing with his b.s.. </font>

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That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. The mother is so stupid on SO many levels... what the hell is she thinking?

I'd expect my parents to take my car if I got caught with booze or whatever... but sell it? Publicly humiliate me? No freaking way.

If my parents tried pulling some stunt like this on me and thought I was funny, I'd trash the house, axe their computer, then drive off in one of their cars, leave it somewhere illegal, and take the metro or something home using their money. Know why? Because I'm a teenager, and I make mistakes. A parent's job is to teach and discipline me, but not to make me hate them. If this was my mother, I'd hate her.

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Would you like that served on fine china, or gold with silver trim?

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China, please. Then I can smash that, too.

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I take it your parents were never to big on discipline then?

Honestly the Mom paid for the car, laid down the rules. Obviously her son doesn't like it, but he was clearly raised in an environment where parental authority is enforced. Not nearly enough of that going on these days. And then parents want to blame the gov., schools, TV, and video games for their kids getting in trouble.

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<--- Age. I look forward to the point in my life where I can talk about how my parents "were" anything, as opposed to "are".

My parents are plenty strict, though I rarely do anything to warrant getting disciplined over. I'm all for parents enforcing rules; I've had too many friends screw up their lives already because their parents didn't care enough until it was too late.

However, as someone who is the same age as the boy in question, my opinion is that this kind of thing is WAY over the top. Barring some sort of history here, in which a large punishment is warranted, it seems like the parent in question has some serious issues. She's getting satisfaction and popularity out of publicly humiliating and heavily punishing her child. To me, thats not just discipline, thats escalation. I'd be driven more than ever to directly rebel against that sort of control if I were him.

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The satisfaction from the publicity is excessive and wrong; I'll grant that.

But the conditions were laid out at the purchase of the car. No booze (who's it could be was not specified and is therefore all-encompassing), and always keep the door locked.

She found booze, case closed.

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Punishment is definitely appropriate. Take the keys, take the computer, whatever.

Selling the car is pushing it. I don't know how well-off that family was or what kind of habits they have, but selling the kid's car would imply that he won't be behind the wheel at all until college. That is harsh as hell. The whole advertisement and public humiliation are just totally inappropriate, even for some sort of repeat-offending delinquent.

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As I said, she laid down the rules long in advance, it's not like it was a decision she made on a whim.

Second, he's 19, in many states, if not all of them, that makes you an adult under the court system. If he were pulled over he'd be cited for the offense. If he were to take a swing at someone he'd be arrested. If he were to react as you suggested you might, he'd be arrest for destruction of personal property and face whatever consequences apply. He's an adult now, and flagging on his responsibility doesn't merit leniency. The only reason he has to put up with his mom's rules at all is that he still lives with her and is therefore under her jurisdiction.

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Here's where it can get messy. If Mom bought the car and it's titled in her name, then she can do what she wants with it. If it's titled in Sonny Boy's name, she may not be able to.

However, just because she sold the car, that doesn't mean it's a pedestrian death sentence for Sonny Boy. He can certainly go to work, earn money, and buy his own car. Nothing will stop him from doing that. It may not be as nice as the one Mom bought... okay, at $3700 for a 99 Olds, that probably wasn't that nice either... but it's up to him to do something with and about it.

As for carrying it too far... I'd agree she has. The extra week was spiteful. I do believe that a message was delivered, and a message was received.

*note: Marty, this next bit is not directed at you, personally, indirectly, or anything like that. You just happen to be the same age as Sonny Boy, but the fact that you hang around a place like this makes you a much, much better person :) *

From my perspective, as a dad looking forward to these kinds of events in the future, I believe it's about a year late. My plan, such as it exists, is to raise my kids such that when they graduate, they are able to move out on their own and be responsible adults.

That doesn't mean I don't love and care for them, but I've seen too many cases of parents continuing to support their kids and not allowing them to grow up. As I think I've shared before, an old girlfriend's dad did everyone's taxes every year. Not because he was an accountant, or a CPA, or even because he knew anything about the tax code. He simply did it. I never found out if it was because he enjoyed it, or whether he didn't think they could handle it, but I sure didn't want him doing my taxes...

Ya gotta let 'em grow up. And ya gotta let 'em make mistakes, and face the consequences. I'm reminded of a friend's first car, that we all made fun of... and none of us had licenses, let alone cars, at that point.

She smiled, and told us it had four wheels, a roof, and went faster than her bicycle.

She had us beat on all three counts.

I'm not sure where this thought is wrapping up, but I think it comes down to the difference between rights and abilities. Many people confuse the *ability* to have nice things with the *right* to have nice things...

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You know Bungleau, I like your post better than mine.

:D

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<font color=lime>She may have gone a bit overboard with that extra week, but if it influences other parents not be afraid to "discipline" their kids, than so be it. Kids need to know that they are responsable for their actions. At least she didn't beat him in public! :whip: </font>

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actually.. I did drink once when I was aroud that age - but that's a different story (i was curious! and it tasted bad at..that..time) lol

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I was gonna say, recent polls show that about 43% of children today have had a taste of alcoholic beverage by the age of 10. About 8% have had a full drink.

I just wish I still had a link to the article.

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Wait, what..? 8% by the time they are ten?? That is kinda scary... And does not bode well for the future.
I've only had one full drink and I didn't think much of it. I had never been near alcohol until I was 15 and went to France.

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oh man, i wonder what kind of research they did to get that statistics! :hehe:

but still if you ever find that article, i'd like to read it. heh

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One thing to note about the car ad: it never identified the kid or family involved. I'm sure that some of the kids friends could have pieced together that it was him because it was for a make/model car that he was suddenly not driving anymore. But it didn't mean that everyone who read the newspaper knew that Billy Smith was getting his car taken away.

I still think that running the ad an extra week was a bit much.

Overall, though, I'd have to say I support the punishment. If it were a younger kid, justing taking away driving privileges for a month or two may have been appropriate, but for a 19 year old, selling the car is fine. Remember that even if the kid was telling the truth about it being a passenger drinking in the car, had they gotten pulled over, he still would have been in big trouble for having an open container in the car.

When I have kids, if I provide them with a car, and then find out that they are breaking the law with it (DUI, open containers, drag racing, reckless driving, etc.), yes, I'll take it back. I'm not talking about driving 65 in a 55 mph zone, but if they are risking jail time while driving, why should I provide the means?