Jay, you are 100% on the money. I read this story in the news and it made me sick. The son is dropping out of school and got a job at UPS so he can have a new home for his mom when she gets out of jail. He even asked the judge to throw him in jail instead of his mom.

Besides, when kids go away to college, it is always the repressed ones whose parents never let them drink that get fall-down drunk all the time. Parents need to teach their kids how to drink responsibly, and not take this prohibitionist, not-a-single-drop-of-liquor stance.

On a lighter note, I like the idea for a learner’s permit.

My Mom was a hero that night, and no one got hurt. I’ve always appreciated that she did that for me, and it didn’t make her a bad parent. If anything, it strengthened our relationship. She knew she could trust me, and I felt that she knew how responsible I was.

If they wanted to slap this woman on the wrist, that’s fine. But to make her do hard time – that’s just insane. What about her kids? What’s life for them going to be like without their mother for 2 years? And imagine the guilt they’re feeling over all of this.

Cheers!

If a friend of my child’s parent gave my son something I didn’t want them to have — it would depend what, of course — I would still most likely not try to have them jailed over it but would instead try to resolve it as amicably as I could. But apart from poison or something that could permanently damage them (like, as you suggest, cigarettes), what would I not want them to have? I hope I will act as my parents did in such situations, which is that they got to know the parents of the friends I was spending the most time with so they felt comfortable with where I was spending my time.

To me, saying “the law is the law” is a bit of a copout. The law is what we as a society decides it should be. Strict liability, federal minimum sentencing guidelines and three strikes laws have all be shown to have major problems that lead to grave injustices. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of laws on the books right now that are reprehensible or absurd which we rightly ignore and which the authorities no longer prosecute. But they’re still technically the law. I think looking at the law in a rigid black and white view is as bad for a society as having no laws at all. But then I think compassion is one of the things that makes us human, and not everyone agrees with that. C’est la vie.

You think you should be allowed to raise your child, not the government, right? Well how would you feel if another parent gave your kid something you did not want them to have? What gave these parents the right to raise other parent’s kids without permission?

And believe me, I am very pro-beer anti-controlling-government. But other parents should not be allowed to give my kids a substance that, for their age, is illegal. *I* do not care if another parent gives my kids beer, but some parents might. They have that right. And I would care if another parent gave my kids cigerettes.

Why is this country so afraid of nuance and intelligent thought?