Maybe there’s hope for western civilization after all. Since growing up, I’ve lamented how personal responsibility seems to have become an unknown concept. Many people feel an entitlement when they have none. Television ads shill items and loans they claim you deserve. Companies offering financing will make allowances for bad credit that’s not your fault. Of course this is directed at adults who suffered a lack of discipline and weren’t taught cause and effect as children.
But as I said, perhaps there’s hope. Jane Hambleton of Fort Dodge, Iowa, has dubbed herself the meanest mom on the planet. Does she beat her children? Deny them food? It’s worse than that. She discovered alcohol under the seat of her 19-year-old son’s car and is therefore selling the vehicle.
Further, she’s not content with the loss of the car being his only punishment. The ad she put in the paper goes into detail about why the car is on the market:
OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don’t love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet.
Clearly, I’m not the only person who feels this way because of more than 70 calls she’s received, most were positive comments on her parenting and not offers to buy the car. No one called with criticism.
As you might imagine, her son isn’t pleased. He claims the alcohol was left by a passenger. Come on, if a police officer stopped him and discovered the alcohol, it wouldn’t matter who put it there. He’d be in serious trouble. Why should his mom treat the situation any differently? Indeed, if he allows friends to bring alcohol into the car, or if he allows the type of friend who would bring alcohol into the car, he’s not nearly as responsible as he should be. Further, ‘no alcohol’ was one of the two rules she states as a condition of her buying the car for him. The other rule was to always keep it locked. He broke the first rule, regardless of who left the alcohol in the car. His car, his responsibility.
Mean mom Hambleton said, “The ad cost a fortune but you know what? I’m telling people what happened here. I’m not just gonna put the car for resale when there’s nothing wrong with it, except the driver made a dumb decision.”
Her son is upset now, but he’ll come to realize his mom did him a favour by making sure he never forgets a valuable lesson.
_don
One of my favourite commercials shows a number of young teenagers complaining: “you never let me…”, “I always have to do…”, “you never let me play with..”, etc. At the very end, those same kids say “thanks mom and dad”. I think one had a graduation hat on or something.
I wish more parents had balls to be more assertive to their kids. They really need those boundaries.