wesglen incident

[justwondered]

Visiting cousins in Wesglen. Not sure what street it was or what was going on. From his backyard, we could see fire, ambulance and a few police cars. Lots of lights and noise. Hope nobody got hurt. Anybody know anything?

[living in america]

Some boys were smoking behind one of the signs to a section in Wesglen. They dropped the cigarette and the leaves caught on fire. The sign went up in flames. One of the boys finally called 911 and admitted it. I don't think the boys were arrested or charged. Something fishy there. The whole thing was hushed up but the boys could not keep their mouths shut and blabbed at school.

[just me]

Lets say it america " boys will be boys!"

[justwondered]

Yeah, I heard about that. Good thing they didn't get their pants caught on fire! My cousin and I both live in Wesglen. They should make the boys' families pay for that sign. Granted, it was an accident, but they should be held responsible. I'm sure that it was expensive to replace.

[just me]

not only should the families have to pay for the sign, back in my day after my dad was done giving the money over he would have taken off his belt and tanned my ass but good right in front of whoever he was paying. Thats whats wrong with todays society, enough with this politically correct, my kid would not do anything wrong, you have to respect the child, you will emotionally damage my child world that we live in. Bullshit, you are old enough to do the deed you are old enough to get your ass whipped!! Don't forget, the children were smoking behind the sign.

[AmericanMom]

I also believe the boys should be punished, but if you have to strike a child to your point across you are not much of a parent. My Mom never hit us. She made the punishment fit the crime and that was enough. We did not want to make her mad. Head for the hills as they say.

[Cappa]

justwondered wrote:

Yeah, I heard about that. Good thing they didn't get their pants caught on fire! My cousin and I both live in Wesglen. They should make the boys' families pay for that sign. Granted, it was an accident, but they should be held responsible. I'm sure that it was expensive to replace.

I live in Wesglen, if the residents of Wesglen have to pay for the sign... I will be suing those boys parents. The boys were negligent and their parents should pay for it.

[just me]

hey "AmericanMom" what would your mom do? make them stand in the corner for 30 minutes? Thats whats wrong with todays kids, always easy on them. a good crack on their asses a couple of times would not hurt them and after that they may really not want to make her mad!! My mom and dad both as you say "struck" us and i think they are the best parents around. Not one of us kids were ever arrested, we have all become productive people in society. and not one of us is a child beater, wife beater or has held anyone hostage with a gun. we were taught respect and honesty. and still to this day I don't want to piss off my parents. a good crack on the ass does wonders

[Crimson Rose]

Do you guys really think the parents should pay for the sign? Since they know who the kids are why not have them work off there debt, picking up garbage around the neighborhood? Or anything else constructive.

[justwondered]

Crimson Rose wrote:

Do you guys really think the parents should pay for the sign? Since they know who the kids are why not have them work off there debt, picking up garbage around the neighborhood? Or anything else constructive.

Yes the parents should pay for the sign. Do you really think these kids would even show up for cleaning duty? One or two days tops and then 'see ya!'. Why does everyone who is responsible have to pony up for people who are not? What happened to responsibility and doing the right thing? The association should not have to pay, nor the residents because they did not cause the incident. If it were my son I would have offered to pay and then have the kid pay off the debt to me. That is the decent thing to do; no one else has to shoulder the debt of someone else's carelessness and the boy learns a lesson on being responsible young man.

[Crimson Rose]

justwondered wrote:

<quoted text>
Yes the parents should pay for the sign. Do you really think these kids would even show up for cleaning duty? One or two days tops and then 'see ya!'. Why does everyone who is responsible have to pony up for people who are not? What happened to responsibility and doing the right thing? The association should not have to pay, nor the residents because they did not cause the incident. If it were my son I would have offered to pay and then have the kid pay off the debt to me. That is the decent thing to do; no one else has to shoulder the debt of someone else's carelessness and the boy learns a lesson on being responsible young man.

Well, if it's true they do know who did it the boys would be charged and the courts could sentence them to work it off. If for some reason they were not charged then I would be taking that up with the police to get them charged and sentenced.

[justwondered]

Crimson Rose wrote:

<quoted text>
Well, if it's true they do know who did it the boys would be charged and the courts could sentence them to work it off. If for some reason they were not charged then I would be taking that up with the police to get them charged and sentenced.

Why do we need to waste more time and money clogging up the justice system for carelessness? It's great no one got hurt, but why do we need to FORCE people to be responsible? Why can't they step up and do the right thing on their own? What's the incentive for being a decent person? The courts have to nanny us into being responsible people now? The actions weren't criminal,anyway. It wasn't done with malice, but it was done with carelessness. But carelessness has consequences, none the less. We need to explain this to kids and teens. Actions come with consequence, not passes. If paying for the sign is the consequence, so be it. The kid learns to be careful next time. Problems solved, clean and neat and the kid learns a valuable lesson in life.

[AmericanMom]

So if I understand your reasoning, the only way your parents could get the point across was by hitting you? I realize it was a different generation and it was completely acceptable to hit it someone 4 times smaller than you, but at the same time, were you happy about being hit? Did it honestly teach you a lesson or was programming by pain? This is how circus animals are trained.

I did not mean any disrespect to your parents. I'm glad you have such a tremendous admiration for them. That is very much lacking in the kids today.
And I am saying this without any sarcasm. To answer your question on how my mother accomplished punishments without striking us, one very good memory comes to mind. I "forgot" to do the dishes one night and when she came home after work, she took every dish out of the cabinets, put them in the middle of the floor, and dropped dirt on them. Woke me up and I had to wash every dish and then the rest of the mess. And of course, she did not let me skip school the next day. I never "forgot" to wash the dishes again. That taught me more of a lesson of responsibilty than if she were to smack me around.

No child deserves to be hit and if you do hit, it is usually out of anger and that is called child abuse. There is no argument for this. There is NO justification for hitting a child. Just empty excuses.

just me wrote:

hey "AmericanMom" what would your mom do? make them stand in the corner for 30 minutes? Thats whats wrong with todays kids, always easy on them. a good crack on their asses a couple of times would not hurt them and after that they may really not want to make her mad!! My mom and dad both as you say "struck" us and i think they are the best parents around. Not one of us kids were ever arrested, we have all become productive people in society. and not one of us is a child beater, wife beater or has held anyone hostage with a gun. we were taught respect and honesty. and still to this day I don't want to piss off my parents. a good crack on the ass does wonders

[Smoking Idiot]

Hello everyone, I was one of the kids smoking by the sign and I just want everyone to know we did not do it on purpose. We heard sirens and got scared and ran away leaving behind the cigarettes still lit, we did not try to commit vandalism or anything, we like living around here. We feel bad for what happened but dont feel we are responsible, some store sold us them cigarettes and that should not be overlooked. We are just kids and do not know any better, we had smoked there before and never had a problem but now we learned our lesson..LOL no more smoking for us.

Anyway I told my ma that I was sorry and would not do it again and she said that was good enough for her as long as I learned my lesson this time. I asked her if we should pay for the sign and she said that it would be cheaper if every home pitched in and payed, it was like $ 800 so we figure its only about $ 1 per home for 1 month...oh well. Hopefully the new sign is somewhat flame proof..lol..just kidding, bye everyone.

[just me]

AmericanMom wrote:

So if I understand your reasoning, the only way your parents could get the point across was by hitting you? I realize it was a different generation and it was completely acceptable to hit it someone 4 times smaller than you, but at the same time, were you happy about being hit? Did it honestly teach you a lesson or was programming by pain? This is how circus animals are trained.
I did not mean any disrespect to your parents. I'm glad you have such a tremendous admiration for them. That is very much lacking in the kids today.
And I am saying this without any sarcasm. To answer your question on how my mother accomplished punishments without striking us, one very good memory comes to mind. I "forgot" to do the dishes one night and when she came home after work, she took every dish out of the cabinets, put them in the middle of the floor, and dropped dirt on them. Woke me up and I had to wash every dish and then the rest of the mess. And of course, she did not let me skip school the next day. I never "forgot" to wash the dishes again. That taught me more of a lesson of responsibilty than if she were to smack me around.
No child deserves to be hit and if you do hit, it is usually out of anger and that is called child abuse. There is no argument for this. There is NO justification for hitting a child. Just empty excuses.
<quoted text>

now let me get this straight, your mom woke you up in the middle of the night to punish you for not washing the dishes?? wouldn't that be psycological abuse? my brother and sister in law punished my neice once by cutting her waist long hair off up to her ears. that, in my opinion, had more bad long lasting effects than a spanking ever would. they do not talk to each other to this day. I guess what i am trying to say is everyone has an opinion about punishment and usually it is against the form that they did NOT receive. I, as it seems like you, do not find fault in the way we were disiplined, it made us better people. back to my original post though, those boys should be disiplined some way and disipline is whats lacking in todays society. and that punishment should be either physically or psycologically, whichever their parents chose, but it should be punishment. I think if we adults could get past trying to impose our beliefs on each other and concentrate on raising our children better we would have a better society of children. I for one will try to do this.

[justwondered]

just me wrote:

<quoted text>
now let me get this straight, your mom woke you up in the middle of the night to punish you for not washing the dishes?? wouldn't that be psycological abuse? my brother and sister in law punished my neice once by cutting her waist long hair off up to her ears. that, in my opinion, had more bad long lasting effects than a spanking ever would. they do not talk to each other to this day. I guess what i am trying to say is everyone has an opinion about punishment and usually it is against the form that they did NOT receive. I, as it seems like you, do not find fault in the way we were disiplined, it made us better people. back to my original post though, those boys should be disiplined some way and disipline is whats lacking in todays society. and that punishment should be either physically or psycologically, whichever their parents chose, but it should be punishment. I think if we adults could get past trying to impose our beliefs on each other and concentrate on raising our children better we would have a better society of children. I for one will try to do this.

Americanmom, I have to agree with this guy. What your mother did to you borders on abuse. Making you get up and do the dishes that needed to get done would have been enough-that was excessive. What the guy is trying to tell you is that a 'swat' that doesn't really cause pain is enough to deter a child. It doesn't hurt, but boy is it embarrassing. Sometimes the thought of that was enough to keep me from doing the wrong thing; you see it buildt a conscious. Do this, knowing it's wrong and this will happen. It's not abuse (so long as it isn't a beating). I tell you that it only happened once to me, didn't hurt (my dad actually took a big swing for drama, but actually didn't slap) and I learned to think twice before doing something I know my folks wouldn't approve. Building character and a moral compass requires discipline, motivation, and yes, an incentive for good behavior. Phycologists, like my brother-in-law, have parents believing that talking it all out will solve everything--kids don't listen. By the way, his kids are the WORST behaved in the entire family-he knows it, but says he's powerless to do anything about it. We all shake our heads and think he's a moron with a PhD, or split hair away from genius and insanity (but that's another story). Bottom line is actions carry consequence and one quick, painless 'swat' doesn't hurt--nor does paying for that sign, by the way.

[Restore America]

This sounds like the same arson that was done last year. The kids said the same thing smoking which is BS. We heard that one of the kids was a association board member's kid so I'm sure it was dropped because of it. We need to go after the parents and send the message that we will not tolerate it for anyone. First signs then vacant houses then occupied houses is the way it starts. This will not be solved with hugs and timeouts and anyone who believes so is a flippin stupid liberal losers.

[R-ville resident]

Yes, there was a board members son involved, and it got swept under the rug, because it is private property and " it would be taken care of." which means that the residents ended up paying for something that they should not have, the boys got off scott free. Chicago type mafia justice in little ole r'ville.

[To the smoking idiot]

It was wrong for your Mom to make the decision for me. I do not want to pay for your mistake! You choose to buy those cigarettes, You choose to smoke, You choose to leave! YOU CHOOSE all those things. STOP making choices for ME! Own up to what you did and PAY for it! Stop standing behind your parents and their nonsense. Grow up and take responsibility for your actions. One day you will make a decision that your parents won't be able to get you out of and what are you going to do then. Oh yeah, I will have to pay taxes to the court system to charge you with your crime.

[Baseball Parent]

The boys should pay for the sign! They need to be responsible. Why should everyone else pay for it? Grow up and be accountable for your actions. You purchased cigarettes knowing it was wrong, don't blame others for YOUR actions. Do the right thing and own up to your mistake. Pay the bill!