@Consolation I agree. Reading the different perspectives is always fascinating. I don’t know what I would have done myself. I probably would have driven on by it in the first place. I think @3scoutsmom’s actions were laudable.
re: post 137
My ds2 was the one on his floor who didn’t have a fake ID. He said why should he get one when everyone else had one and could get him whatever he wanted. =)) All the booze, none of the risk. Well, less risk.
Some kids use their fake IDs to get into bars. If that is the case, having all your friends have one won’t get you want you whatever you want (at least if you want to hang out with your friends).
And again, I am not saying all kids who tell their parents they don’t have a fake ID have one. Just that some of them do. I am sure there are multiple kids who are the only ones on their floor not to have a fake ID. Again, maybe not your kid but they are out there.
In terms of the drinking age, I think one’s view of it is relevant. People who disagree with the drinking age will be more likely to view fake IDs as a non-issue. And again, that is just a tendency not an absolute.
I really don’t get the relevancy of people’s personal views on the drinking age. It’s legal to smoke pot in many states now so are you saying because it’s legal somewhere and you think it’s ok it should be ok to smoke pot everywhere and that you’d be ok with your kids taking weed into Taiwan or other countries with strict drug laws?
I guess this logic is just is lost on me. Not agreeing with the law doesn’t make it any less illegal.
Yes, that’s it.
Sad, don’t you think?
^^^ to the best of my knowledge, our town doesn’t have an “other side of the tracks” no sure if Austin currently has that. Years ago East Austin might have be considered the wrong side of the tracks but not in the last several years.
Even by CC standards, there is a monumental leap here which is surprising. Just wow.
Now in terms of pot in the US, there are indeed many people who live in places where pot isn’t legal who think it should be legal. And in my experience, that is especially true of young people. And that includes people who to my knowledge do not use pot themselves. They just do not seem to view pot use as a big deal (even in states where its illegal).
The issue was brought up here about finding drugs when looking through the wallet. In my experience, I would expect someone who thinks that pot should be legal would be less likely to raise the issue of finding drugs than someone who thinks that pot should be illegal.
The idea that everyone should or will view everything the law says is illegal as an absolute wrong seems odd and naïve to me. That people do not view it as an absolute is often a driver of changes in the law. Now no doubt in the meantime, you run the risk of getting caught. Though there is often a lot of subjectivity in terms of that.
And it seems to me if you are in the fake IDs are illegal absolutely camp, you should support turning the wallet into the police rather than to the mother. Let them decide whether to prosecute.
Fake ID’s are illegal - is there really any question if they are illegal or not? Many, including myself, think it should be a family matter as to how to handle it for kids under 18. If the parent wants to turn their kid in over a fake ID that’s up to them same with drug possession. But Calicash has stated since it’s legal to drink in some countries under 21 it should be a non-issue here and that’s just ludicrous. Different places have different laws and you need to follow the law where you are or risk the consequences. Kids should learn that sooner rather than later and it’s obvious that some Americans (basketball players in China, tourists in North Korea…) have not learned this.
Change the drinking age and the desire to get fake IDs goes away (at least for those affected by a lowered drinking age). So its not so much that people think Fake IDs should be legal as it is the drinking age should be changed.
What other issues of legality do you think are family matters?
So how low do you want the drinking age to be? I know of kids that had fake IDs when the drinking age was 18. In Texas it is legal for parents to serve their own kids alcohol, even in public, regardless of age.
What I am saying is that parents should have a chance to parent and hopefully teach their kids to abide by the law of the land or surfer the consequences not tell the kids that they don’t agree with the law so it doesn’t apply to them. Remember the “affluenza” defense? Kids make mistakes and hopefully parents will help them learn from them.
if i had found the wallet, my natural curiosity would be to do something similar. I’d rifle through it, google the name, and try to contact the kid via twitter or something. If i couldnt easily find him I’d drive there; and i probably would have made a passive/aggressive remark to the mom with something like “oh it was hard to figure out who it was with all of those IDs in there.” Easy to do with a stranger. I’ve found 3 wallets; my heart has slightly raced each time on what to do.
In real life, the lady i work with/for has an 18 year old senior who has a fake ID.
I know about it. She does not. I have not figured out how to deal with this situation yet.
Increase the drinking age and the demand for fake IDs increases. Decrease it and that demand goes down. I was just raising the point about lowering the drinking age when you stated that Fake Ids are illegal and asked whether there is any question as to whether there aren’t. My point is that people don’t think that fake IDs should be legal rather some believe the drinking age should be lowered.
Kids do make mistakes. But presumably you believe that at least some of those mistakes are beyond family matters and thus are not for families to decide how to handle. My guess is that some people think that fake Ids and drugs are not family matters even though you have stated you do. Could it be they are right? How do we know?
How about speeding? Its illegal. Yet (from my experience driving in a vast majority of the states) is very common. On certain stretches of highway, you are in the minority of you are not speeding. Are parents who speed telling their kids that they don’t agree with the law so it doesn’t apply to them?
I live near a high school where kids cut through my yard. Years ago I found a weathered lunch box in my bushes. I was going to throw it away, but there was a thermos in there that seemed to have something inside. I opened it and found a small amount of weed. (S thought it belonged to a particular neighborhood kid who had that reputation. )We weren’t sure what to do with it.(It is illegal in our state. I am against legalization, but it isn’t something I really care about or would call the police about.) Seems funny now–we mixed some kitchen spices like oregano, basil, etc. with the weed, and put it back where we found it! The next day, it was gone.
OP–you did the right thing. I never had a fake ID. But I did know of high school kids who had them at 16-17 when the drinking age was 18. My kids don’t know anyone who has fake IDs. Fortunately they have little interest in alcohol, and don’t associate with drinkers. I am glad the drinking age was raised. Alcohol is much less prevalent in my kids’ high school than it was in mine. Most kids do obey the law. (At my school, in the 70s, 18yos could walk to the local liquor store during lunch hour, legally buy beer, share with underage friends, come to class drunk…)