What I Would Have Liked To Say
I took a 9-1-1 call today from a mom:
Me: "9-1-1"
Her: "What can I do about my 16 year old acting out of control and punching holes in the wall?"
Okay, at this point, my responsibility is to tell her if she is having a problem I can send her a police officer to try to help. It's not my job to tell people how to raise their children.
However, I had to physically stop myself from answering
"Be a parent and raise your child yourself. Turn him over your knee if you have to. But don't rely on someone else, namely the police, to raise your child - or you'll probably find yourself soon enough wondering what visiting hours are at the jail."
Instead, I paused, took a breath to prevent myself from answering as above, and replied:
"Well, ma'am. If you need help I can send you a police officer."
We get these kind of calls frequently. Irritates me to no end...
On the other hand, I don't mind the kind of calls where a 5 year old has stolen candy from a store and a mom wants an officer to come talk her child - that's more like PR, the Officer Friendly aspect of their job, in my opinion. And most of the time on those kind of calls, the mom or dad has already talked to the child about how it's wrong to steal, and are just using the police officer to reinforce that - basically to scare the kid.
That I don't mind at all.
Don't think I wont be threatening my kids with the fact that Rubi's dad is a police officer:
"You did what?! What do you think your grandpa will think when he finds out? He is a cop!"
or
"You do know I work with police officers every day, right? I can have them bring a taser here if you keep it up."
Well, at least that's what I'd like to say.
2 comments:
I agree a lot of parents shirk there disciplinary responsibilities, but not all parenting can be solved with a swift spanking. Some kids have problems beyond those with which his parents are able to deal effectively.
I hope that they make the call to family services and get the kind of help that they need before you get a call for an ambulance.
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Don't get me wrong: I wasn't saying one spanking at that time would solve all their problems.
And for some kids, spanking doesn't help at all.
What I was trying to imply, was that parents need to be involved with their children's lives, including disciplining their children, from the very beginning. That way, once the child is older and can think for themselves, they know that their parents have authority over them, and that discipline is because the parents love them and care for them.
I understand some children have "special needs" that go way beyond simple discipline, and require a doctor's participation. I also understand that some parents unfortunately just can't handle that kind of relationship. I also know that some people are not cut out to be parents and are horrible at it. And that is an entirely different post.
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