12yr old boy arrested for opening christmas present early

[Marilyn]

I heard about this on the radio this morning and discussed it at work with some of the guys I work with. They said that when they were 12, their mothers were no longer able to physically discipline them. They were big enough to talk back and there was nothing that she could do to enforce punishment. Dad had to do much of the enforced discipline at that age. Doesn't mean he punched them or anything, but he was capable of it and they knew it. These two ladies don't have a man around to fill this responsible position. This sounds bad, but they may have done what they thought was best try to get this boy's attention. Like his mother said, better for him to have a wakeup call now than be dead later.

This situation is so sad. I'm so glad I have a husband around. Though we had girls, and they never gave us trouble like this.

I fully believe that if you punish harshly in the begining they end up better as adults. teach them morals and right from wrong. My kids got spankings that made them think twice about misbeaving. I didn't have to spank my kids very often at all.
this kid needs a harsh hand to get him on the right track. better it be someone who loves him than someone who doesn't care about his life. it is better for him to have a small police record than none at all right now. there are so many people that goes through the courts now that get a slap on the wrist for awful behavior because it is their first offense. it is not right. they know they are not going to be punished for doing what they know is wrong.
young people don't realize how they are ruining their life until they are too old to do anything about it. they live for the day. If they keep doing that they will not have any future to worry about.

[DianaB]

This is a case where the Mother hasn't been discipling her child properly and now expects the police to teach it to her son. If she would have been disciplining her child and making him mind her, starting when he was very young, then she wouldn't have to turn to the police. We have a lot of kids like this in our society. They're sent to school and the teachers are expected to teach them manners and how to mind and when that doesn't work then they're put on medication.

Teaching your child respect, for you and others, is the best thing that you can teach a child. Once a child learns to respect you then they're willing to learn from you. Too many parents let their children make all the decisions and their lives revolve around what the child wants. That's wrong!!! You are the parent and to gain your child's respect you have to enforce that you are the one in charge. This starts when they are very small and you can enforce that you are the parent, not when their teenagers and you can't control them.

I could go on and on about this subject because I firmly believe that our children's behavior is a direct result of how we parent our children.