<p>She gave a car to her son- Im not sure what the motivation for that was & less than a month later she took it away because of the bottle in the car.</p>
<p>She fullfilled her purpose which was to show him that if he broke the rule there was a consequence.</p>
<p>I still haven’t had my question answered about what the father has to say about it- Im also curious as to what was done with the liquor?</p>
<p>I expect that after the hubbub from this dies down and she has no more invites to talk shows, she will be calling up Dr Phil , to go visit Britney</p>
<p>EmeraldKity…LOL! From the news shows…yes, next step will be Dr. Phil and repairing this situation of public humiliation. What could have been a lesson is now something much more. The kid must be the talk of the community and school (and the US and the internet) now.</p>
<p>No one is disputing that having liquor in the car is wrong, and no one is disputing that there should be consequences to breaking the rules. However, when those consequences include public humiliation of your child in the print media as well as on national television, it is clear that this mom has some serious problems. It’s doubtful that this child will be thanking his mom for this, now or in the future.</p>
True enough. For example, I can envision at least one person, in giving rides to friends, checking to make sure they aren’t carrying. I would imagine, going forward, that both this student, his peers, and many who have read this will have an increased sense of awareness of their own responsibilities.</p>
<p>I guess I just don’t see this as quite as humiliating as others do. If it involved a relationship, or a child, or something debilitating or permanent, then, sure. But having a car taken away and having it in the newspaper is not the Scarlet Letter - though if it were, I suppose it could stand for “alcohol.”</p>
<p>My point has been some things should be done in private away from the public eye. Yes, this turned out OK… but does that really make it OK? </p>
<p>I personally would not publically humilate my kids, They might walk around with a limp for a while from the swift kick in the ass I gave them privately, but that would be between us. </p>
<p>Please don’t think that I am some softy parent because I choose not to join in the public display of displeasure. I’m just leave those kind of parenting issues betweent he child and myslef. In other words, I can handle it myself. </p>
<p>Another way to look at this is the mom lacks enough cofindence in her parenting skills that she needs community support for her actions. Me? not so much.</p>
<p>“Another way to look at this is the mom lacks enough cofindence in her parenting skills that she needs community support for her actions.” - see, I read it the opposite way… Certainly someone lacking in confidence wouldn’t put their parenting skills on display in a paper by talking about how their child had broken a Cardinal Rule Of Car Ownership, would they? Just another aspect of this seen from different angles, though.</p>
<p>“someone lacking in confidence wouldn’t put their parenting skills on display in a paper by talking about how their child had broken a Cardinal Rule Of Car Ownership, would they?”</p>
<p>Yes, because they are seeking approval from others… I read her quotes from your posted link and she talks about the 70 calls in her favor… she is seeking approval for her parenting decisions by making them public. </p>
<p>To me, that’s a lack of confidence in one’s decision making. I don’t need the approval of others to render disipline with my children.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have gone this far–pretty embarrassing for the kid. I DID threaten to make bumper stickers like we see on commercial vehicles: ‘How’s my driving? Call my mom at 123-4567!!’ Typical of my kid…He just rolled his eyes, knowing I wouldn’t have the guts to follow through! Seriously, my feeling is that this kind of thing should be done privately.</p>
<p>She sounds like she is impulsive and doesn’t think through the consequences of her behaviour. As she said, she herself would have been mortified had someone done something like that to her. But she did apologize – apologies count for something with me. </p>
<p>Still, the long term consequences of her behaviour, whether it has a long term effect on the relationship with her son (or her other child) – remain to be seen.</p>
<p>Opie - I think you are ascribing motives not in evidence and putting the cart before the horse. According to the reports, she was quite surprised by the reaction and left the ad running because health care professionals, parents, and others reacted to it strongly and positively.</p>
<p>Well, I definitely would never have done something like that, but to be fair, I don’t think the mom was out for anything close to the publicity that she got. I agree that she should have known, even at the time, that she was broadcasting the news to anyone in her town who bothered to do a reverse number search on the ad. From the dynamics of the situation that I can see though, at this point I’m not as concerned about the kid having long term scars from what the mom did as I am with the possibility that the original message could wind up getting lost in the fifteen minutes of fame.</p>
<p>“According to the reports, she was quite surprised by the reaction and left the ad running because health care professionals, parents, and others reacted to it strongly and positively.”</p>
<p>So Dr. Phil liked it? </p>
<p>Simply put, would you be willing to do this to your child? You seem to see nothing wrong with it, the public display. I on the other hand do. Bottom line, you kid makes a mistake of judgement, one that only really you and he knows and has harmed no one. What would you do? </p>
<p>Here you have the freedom of an internet name, and people can say anything… but when it comes down to being honest, if you had to stand up and be yourself… would you do this to your kid?</p>
<p>I would not do this to my kids. I’d take away privileges, but I wouldn’t publicize the incident. For the same reasons I don’t post their names and transgressions on the internet.</p>
<p>Too late to edit, but what I meant to say… is I think this forum speaks for itself. I’ve never seen any parent on here come out and publicly identify themselves and their kids, and expose their kids’ mishaps.</p>
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