Alaska teen who was injected with heroin dies

[alphamale]

So sad.

[tigre79]

Originally Posted by gobrien

Welfare benefits are only allowed now for a very short period of time, so you can't just choose not to work in order to monitor your kids 24/7 anymore.

Not to mention that choosing to live off of welfare instead of working doesn't exactly set a great example for kids. It's not as if the only two possible options are working so much you never see them or refusing to work so you can spend every waking moment with them.

Children need to see their parents living well-balanced lives so they can learn to create that for themselves. Teenagers should be able to make their own decisions - and their own mistakes - instead of being constantly guarded and kept from learning to interact with the rest of the world in an adult manner.

[NomadicBear]

Welfare mothers make better lovers.

[Frostnip]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

The fact of the matter is that you can supervise your children if you care more about THEM than you do yourself. I have a friend who has SEVEN (yes seven) children and she knows where they are every minute of the day. Mostly because she home schools and they children work on the farm when they aren't studying. They spend their "leisure time" with the FAMILY (novel concept I know), and when they aren't in the company of their parents (which is rare), they are with TRUSTED adults.

All of the children (including the 17 year old), are home every night by 10 pm unless there is a church or Sunday school activity. In which case, the parents take them TO the activity and pick him up AFTER (no driving home with "friends" at this house). And the parents communicate with the teachers, pastors and any other adults that are in charge of caring for the children when they are away from home.

Last year one of their kids turned 20 and proposed to a neighboring girl that goes to their church. Prior to this happening the young man went to the FATHER and asked his permission.

Good lord. I'm glad this works for them, but I would have gone crazy if my parents had kept me on a leash like that.

Personally I find the tradition of asking a father for permission to marry a daughter kind of gross. It's the daughter's choice, not his.

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

What parent or guardian in their right mind allows a couple of mid-20 year old men to pick up there 14 year old, to 'hang out'.

You never snuck out when you were a kid? She didn't necessarily have their blessing on it.

Not downplaying the tragedy of this event.....but some of the posters are acting like this was a nice girl from a nice family.....when it seems more like a very troubled girl from an even more troubling family.

Usually in these cases, it's pretty safe to assume that her parents equally have some pretty hardcore drug addictions themselves. Not making light of this, but it's not as Perfect Angel from Perfect Family strayed ever so slightly, and look what happened to her.

My point is, it's cruel to cast aspersions on the family when you don't know anything about them other than your pie-in-the-sky suppositions based on how the kid's life ended. They could have been terrible, yeah. Or she could have been sadly wayward despite their best efforts. Or somewhere between. There's really no way to know based on the given information. I think people like to have a clear cause to point to, so they can say "oh, that'll never happen to us because in my family we'll do x not y," but in reality kids from all walks of life can go astray or be victimized. There are precautions but short of keeping kids on lockdown (which has its own serious problems) you can't insulate them from all the ills of the world.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by LittleJazzyP

I hope you are not implying that this is the only model for decent, caring parents. As Pat pointed out, it is not feasible for everyone. Most people do not live on farms, and while I do believe that more families could survive on a single salary (if the breadwinner had a good job) by living a bit more simply, the fact is many cannot. And many very decent people would choose a less sheltered existence for their children, one where they meet and learn to live with people from diverse backgrounds with different beliefs, without violating their own moral code.

It sounds like the church is the center of this family's life in every way, and that is lovely if it works for them and is what they want. But it isn't the only way to be a caring parent or a good person. And I suspect that there are some children who, having been raised in such a controlled environment, cannot wait to throw over the traces the minute they are old enough to leave.

Of course not everyone can have the "perfect" situation. I guess the point I was making was that the children are TAUGHT what is right and wrong and they FOLLOW THE RULES. Certainly, if my friends, (the ones with the 7 kid), were called away for a few days and the children were left to take care of the farm/house, there would be no wild parties at 2 am. Things would continue as they do when the parents are there because the respect the parents and the rules of the house.

I cannot believe that the girl who died didn't realize that hanging out with a 26 year old felon and using drugs wasn't a good idea. Either she was not taught or she was not taught to respect her parents rules about her behavior.

That's what it really comes down to; whether or not your children RESPECT you enough to follow the rules when you aren't hovering over them with a ball bat.

20yrsinBranson

[LittleJazzyP]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

Of course not everyone can have the "perfect" situation. I guess the point I was making was that the children are TAUGHT what is right and wrong and they FOLLOW THE RULES. Certainly, if my friends, (the ones with the 7 kid), were called away for a few days and the children were left to take care of the farm/house, there would be no wild parties at 2 am. Things would continue as they do when the parents are there because the respect the parents and the rules of the house.

I cannot believe that the girl who died didn't realize that hanging out with a 26 year old felon and using drugs wasn't a good idea. Either she was not taught or she was not taught to respect her parents rules about her behavior.

That's what it really comes down to; whether or not your children RESPECT you enough to follow the rules when you aren't hovering over them with a ball bat.

20yrsinBranson

I understand what you mean, but I can't agree completely. Almost everyone knows, or has heard of, parents who did their best to instill such values, and succeeded - with all but one of their children. The results are not usually so dramatic, but even in the nicest of families, it is possible to find a child who rebels, regardless of the parents' best efforts.