An Unruly Child Can Take You Places

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An Unruly Child Can Take You Places by Bob Miller

A cheerleader and her friends in Lakeland, Florida beat up a fellow student after seeing an alleged 'trash talking' MySpace post.

Parents have been asking for this type of behavior from their offspring for years now, and like it or not, they now must pick up the phone and call an attorney. Then it's off to the courthouse, and if you've never experienced this demeaning, humiliating, and most expensive endeavor, you're doing something right.

Current law (H.B. 755 122nd General Assembly) defines "unruly child" to include any child:

Who does not subject himself or herself to the reasonable control of his or her parents, teachers, guardian, or custodian, by reason of the child being wayward or habitually disobedient. 2. Who is an habitual truant from home or school. - Who so deports himself or herself as to injure or endanger his or her health or morals or the health or morals of others. 3. Who attempts to marry without parental consent or the consent of the child's custodian, or legal guardian or other legal authority. 4. Who is found in a disreputable place, visits or patronizes a place prohibited by law, or associates with vagrant, vicious, criminal, notorious, or immoral persons. 5. Who engages in an occupation prohibited by law or is in a situation dangerous to life or limb or injurious to his or her health or morals or the health or morals of others.

On a recent visit to the Smithsonian, my Significant Other and I had to wait in line to view the Declaration of Independence. I assume it's the original, but I'd put nothing pass the US government. The Bush family might have the original hanging in one of their homes, and the one we saw came from a print shop in Communist China or Taiwan. Anyway, there was this family of four in front of us. The two children were boys that I would guess were between eleven and fourteen years of age. The parents, I suspect, were above average income professionals. It's strictly a guess, but I'd bet the money I've put back for lunch at McDonalds, all $300 of it, that at least one of them, if not both had an MD or PhD.

One of the boys was upset with his father and kept hitting him in the back with his fist. When he didn't get the response he wanted, he'd hit his Dad harder. It hurt, it had to hurt. Just before I ripped one of the kid’s ear off, his Dad lightly punched the boy back. This kid sits down in the floor and slides on his butt as the line slowly moved, refusing to walk. The other boy, not to be outdone, gets down and ties his mother's shoe laces together as we all watched. While he was doing this I heard my voice say, "Unbelievable."

The mother looked at me and asked, "You wouldn't want two boys, would you?"

I looked at her smiling face, and it helped to dilute at least some of the contempt I felt for her and her husband so I replied, "They wouldn't last long with me." Nothing else was said.