re: What parent would allow their 13 old child to ride a bike at 1:20 am

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Any parent whose kid isn’t in school at 12 years old and is put in juvenile detention center is a failure of a parent. I don’t care if it’s home school, but you shouldn’t get to decide you don’t need an education at 12. Maybe you got lucky, but that’s some really awful parenting. I’ve raised 3 really good successful boys. Not being a perfect parent, but definitely education was emphasized

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When I was 9 years old I missed a little over 60 days straight of school without my father knowing it. He did not find out until a sheriff came to arrest him. I had missed the bus once and the bus quit coming to our house to pick me up because it was too far out of the way...she told the school system this...and I was afraid the first day that I would get in trouble and each ensuing day that fear grew worse and worse. My father worked about 4 hours from home and my older sister, 14, left for school before me. Our mother was "finding herself" which was common in the early 1970s and meant she was out drinking and doing drugs and having lots and lots of sex LOL.

When I was 12 our power was turned off because my Dad did not pay the bill on time. He was still working 4 hours from home. I kept restoring the power until they disconnected it completely and I did not have a ladder tall enough to tie it back in. He was also arrested for this LOL....it was hard on a single parent back in the day.

When I was 15 we had moved to Atlanta and my dad was working 3 hours from home. He asked if I wanted to move with him and I told him no and we made a deal that he would pay the rent and I would pay the utilities and all my expenses myself. I had a friend move in and we were party central until we graduated 3 years later. During this time I sold bonded whiskey and drugs to earn the money to pay for my living expenses.

I turned out just fine. I was incredibly lucky not to wind up dead or in jail. There is some justification for parents to be involved in the lives of their kids....

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.I started driving in my grandfathers lap at 6

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My father in law did that with his grandkids too (five years ago), but since he's Latino almost anything goes.

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My father in law did that with his grandkids too (five years ago), but since he's Latino almost anything goes.

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Having lived in SE New Mexico I will confess the disdain Hispanic folks have for authorities is pretty damned impressive LOL...would that more white folks held the state in that level of contempt. We did so as recently as the 1980s....popular culture was chock bock full of white folks making the state look like idiots and we LOVED IT. Now we are of the opinion that the state is above reproach and can make no mistake when it comes to policing black and brown people and white people do not need policing....