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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Yesterday I was talking to a woman about a young boy in our area that shot and killed his dads pregnant girl friend. He was eleven years old. Instead of being appalled, she just said, 'Oh, well, what do you expect from kids that come from a broken home.' Then went on to blame the dad and dead woman for what he did.

I agree that the two adults had to hold some blame for it. I mean, who gives an eleven year old boy a shot gun all of his own for Christmas then leaves him use it when he wants to. They are at fault for that but what got me was the fact that she, like so many, seem to think that if you come from a broken home, it gives you a good reason to become a criminal.

I came from a broken home. They don't get more 'broken' then the one I came from. My dad walked out when I was two. My mom was not able to take care of us but she did her best for four years. I went from her house to an orphanage for a year then spent the next three years in various foster homes before ending up in my last one where I was lucky to land in the home of a woman who was courageously her grandson after raising her own children. She then took on the burden or raising me in a loving home, along with other children. Her family made me part of the family and I never felt like an outsider there. She taught me about life, love and respecting others.....

Just like many others who are raising kids in a single parent home.

I have never killed anyone. I have not even been in the inside of a jail. I know many who have been raised by single parents and they turned out to be just fine.

Oh, it is great having both a mom and dad to help with the raising of the kids. That is the ideal way but it does not always work out that way. I know people who stay together for the sake of the kids and the kids end up being miserable because they are being raised in a loveless house.

Some act as though only those from broken homes commit heinous crimes. They forget how often you see loving parents sitting in a courtroom weeping because their child has just been found guilty of murder.

It is time we stopped blaming a person's childhood for the crimes they commit. They and they alone are responsible.

However, I do think the case I mentioned is different because it was a child who did it and I may have more to say on that in another post.

4 comments:

  1. That's true Garnet...I have many divorced friends...who have raised their children well...children just need to be heard and repected...It's not the broken home...it's the broken person that is responsible...adult or child.

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  2. I agree - 2 incapable people are not better than 1 capable one. Also, there is the character or personality of the child itself to consider - the neighborhood can have an effect - mistakes can be made. How many children are coerced by bullies into doing things they don't want to? How many "gangs" are run by such?

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  3. Jeannie..the gang thing happens more then we know. And the teasing kids get today is so much worse then what we went thru as kids. The bullying is awful.

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  4. So very true my friend, I have had children raised by fine upstanding people who did terrible things and most of it always illegal, then I have seen horrible addictive parents raise their kids in horrible situations and these kids turn out to be wonderful young men and women. I don't know what the answers are but at some point in everyone's life one makes a decision to choose right or wrong. When one knows better they do better, a dead pregnant woman and an eleven year old child who murdered her....oh the evil of it all. So very sad really.

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