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Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,763 posts, read 23,886,607 times
Reputation: 14691
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I'm surprised that a thread on this topic hasn't been started yet. Around Labor Day weekend 300 teenagers invited themselves to party, trash, vandalize, urinate on the floors, bust windows and caused an insane amount of damage at a former NFL player Brian Hollway's home in Stephentown, NY.
This good man gave them all a second chance to make amends and take ownership and responsibility for themselves and show up to help clean up, maybe apologize. Only one out of 300 showed up. The remaining 299 teenagers cowardly ignored his gesture. He started this website which shows these kids gloating on twitter about the party with their immature twitter posts - Help Me Save 300. What's worse, their parents are threatening lawsuits,... (Are you f-ing kidding me)?
Is this very telling about this generation of kids and parents and lack of accoutability?
Last week, word got out that your children had broken into a home in Stephentown, NY and threw a party. More than 300 of them partied and drunkenly smashed windows, urinated on the floors, stood on tables, punched holes in the ceiling and stole a statue that was part of a memorial for the owner's stillborn grandson. Oh, it gets better. Before, during and after the party, they tweeted about it and posted pictures of themselves engaged in this behavior.
Way to go.
The house is owned by former NFL player Brian Holloway. It is his second residence, paid for in part by his Super Bowl bonus. He lives in Florida and the Stephentown house is on the market. He watched this unfold online while at his home in Florida. Instead of demanding the arrest of your kids, he instead created a website, Help Me Save 300, where he reposted their photos, identified the people involved, and called for ways to reach out to young people and show them that there are better ways to spend their time than drinking, drugs and vandalism.
He is a better person than I would have been in that position. It takes class and compassion to see beyond the urine stained carpets, broken windows, damaged walls and blatant disrespect to reach out to your kids. He even offered to welcome these derelicts back to his house for a picnic, where they would work together to make repairs and clean up the mess they left behind. I don't know that the rest of us would have been able to react the same way.
And one kid showed up. One, out of the 300 teens who were there.
Instead of dragging your kids back to apologize and clean up the mess, you lashed out at Brian Holloway, threatened to firebomb his house, and are now planning to sue him. For what? For identifying your kids online. Well guess what? Your little Johnny did that himself the minute he tweeted that iPhone photo standing on the dining room table, holding a red solo cup filled with beer.
Look, I don't blame you for what your kids did. Heck, I don't even really blame them. Teens will be teens, and they do stupid things sometimes. We've all been there. It's not fair to judge parents on the mistakes their kids make. It is how you handle that behavior afterwards that reflects on you as a parent.
Instead of sitting little Johnny down and reminding him that what he did is not acceptable and then dragging him by the collar to apologize to Mr. Holloway, you chose instead to harass and threaten the victim. Let's not forget here, your child victimized this man by destroying his home. How dare you respond with anything other than regret, embarrassment, and a sincere apology instead of righteous indignation, threats of violence and lawsuits.
Parents like you are responsible for an entire generation that expects the world handed to them, because you have given it to them all along. Instead of teaching your kids to work hard and earn things, you give a trophy to every kid in youth sports and then hand them an iPhone in middle school. You are the parents screaming through the fence at the Little League umpire instead of teaching good sportsmanship. You are the ones criticizing the teacher instead of realizing they just want to help your child learn.
Can you please just step back and look at what you are doing to your kids? This is the generation that will grow up to lead our country and make decisions regarding our lives. I hope none of them are YOUR children.
This piece originally appeared on Chuck and Kelly's blog on the WGY radio station website 810 & 103.1 in Albany, NY.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 09-27-2013 at 05:06 PM..
He's gonna have to put one of those tents they use to fumigate for roaches over his house. The stink of 300 guidos (oh God those pictures...) isn't coming out with a can of Glade.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,763 posts, read 23,886,607 times
Reputation: 14691
Quote:
Originally Posted by Finger Laker
On a positive note the statue/headstone was returned
Also, a good size group of people did show up to help him including many teens from the area that weren't at the party
Then on the "you should have manned up" note - there have been at least 6 arrests so far with more to come for sure
It's nice that some kids from the community that had nothing to do with the party showed up to help clean up the damage out of the kindness of their hearts. However only one out of the 300 at the party were there. It really makes me wonder how telling that is about this generation of kids and the lack of accountability, responsibility, and discipline shaping them with an entitlement complex. It seems very disheartening.
I'm not saying this is all or most kids in this generation, however it seems to be a good lot of them.
Yes, I've seen this story, and I had to SMH at the parents. Not only did they threaten to sue, he's gotten threats that his house would be firebombed.
What went on here is just a symptom of the lack of accountability and the entitlement mentality that permeates our entire culture, period. And it's not specific to just one generation. It's always been there, as far as I can tell, although it's certainly seemed to have gotten way worse over the last quarter century or so. A guy backs over his own kid in his driveway and sues the goverment because the car did not have a rear-view camera in it. A woman sues Ferrero Rocher because she says that the company led her to believe that Nutella was part of a healthy breakfast. It's no longer the students that are to blame for their bad grades - it's the teachers' fault! And myriad other examples where people crow on and on about their supposed "rights", while at the same time neglecting to practice the responsibility that goes along with said rights.
Not sure exactly how society got to this point - the reasons are varied and complex - but I hope that the tide changes, or this entire society is going to go straight down the toilet.
Last edited by swgirl926; 09-28-2013 at 01:56 PM..
Reason: not "was" - "would be".
Wow. I don't even know where to start. Arrest the kids, fine the parents for being crappy parents and pay for the damages to the guy's home. This is ridiculous. Everyone involved besides the homeowner needs to be smacked in the head until they understand that no part of this is acceptable in any way.
...Is this very telling about this generation of kids and parents and lack of accountability?
If the parents of these kids are as shabby as this...how did they get that way? Looks like the decline goes back at least three generations. Maybe the kids of the Fifties didn't grow up to be such sterling, "traditional values" types after all if their kids are such lousy parents.
In any case, a shameful event.
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