OK, I am sure most of you have heard the headlines.
TEEN SUES PARENTS FOR SUPPORT
18 year old Rachel Channing is suing her parents for child support, private high school tuition and access to her college fund.
Rachel's parents claim that just before her 18th birthday Rachel told them that she was grown and could do what ever she wanted, she didn't like their rules, so she left. Rachel claims that they kicked her out when she turned 18. She moved in with a friend and her friends' parents are helping her sue her parents for support. (Don't get me started on that one!)
Really the details hardly matter here. An 18 year old is suing her parents!
So this is what our country is coming to?
Now let me get this straight, because the "rights" are changing so rapidly I am just trying to keep up. So...our nations' unalienable rights are: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, healthcare and now parental support?
Can we say that we all agree on at least the first three?
But healthcare? Well, really if healthcare is a right, as our esteemed President...cough, cough... has mandated, well then why NOT parental support?
After all, having a roof over our head and food in our bellies must be a higher right than healthcare, and since the court has ruled that (for now) the parents are not culpable then how about good 'ole Uncle Sam?
What?...You mean we shouldn't foot the bill for every teenager who refuses to obey family rules and gets kicked out.
Then America, I suggest we start to send a message.
Instead of turning this teenage loser into an instant celebrity, we must insist that ridiculous claims such as these, require a high fine for wasting the courts' time.
Which leads me to some really basic questions like;
Who was the idiot Attorney who took the case? I realize that the Teenager's friends' father was an Attorney, the nincompoop who started this whole mess, and since this teenage idiot is in his home, let him foot this bill! But let's not stop there, What Law firm took it from there? What idiot judge agreed to hear the case?
So they just collect their fees and move on?
What will keep them from taking other cases like this in the future?
This is only the beginning America.
We have not heard the last of this case.
Cases like these get our attention. They scare the heebie jeebies out of parents who often warn their rebellious teenagers that if they don't follow the rules then there's the door. Imagine a world where the government takes all of the power away from the parents.
I will tell you where that leads.
The Nanny State.
We are coming to that a lot sooner than we might like to think. If any of this court case passes, the legal precedent will create enormous ramifications.
I knew I should have given in to that new Xbox my boys wanted for Christmas.
You've missed your calling Melissa - you should be and Op/Ed reporter. This is very good.
ReplyDeleteOur daughter left on her 18th birthday. We were devastated. She hadn't followed our rules for years but we still loved her and wanted her home. I could tell you stories of such awfulness that it would curl your hair. I don't know the parents or the girl but I can tell you that it sounds like there has been hurt feelings for so long that there is no love left. Sometimes a child will be so strong willed that no amount of talking could ever change them. It sounds like that is the case here and probably an adult got involved, saying things like, "You ought to sue your parents." She's legally an adult now and the parents don't have to provide anything. If this case goes to court and she wins then every child who is into drugs will see a quick way to get some drug money--sue their parents. We were lucky. Our child was "gone" from us, even though she came back to live here for a while, and now she is back. Not all the way but drug free and going to school. We adore her. It sounds like the judge should require family counseling first, second and third. I hope he does.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you wrote here, Melissa, except that this is not the beginning (but you're so right about it not being the end).. This nonsense has been going on to a lesser degree for a number of years. The new media has just brought it to the attention to a greater audience, and these kinds of situations are becoming more and more brazen and ridiculous. Parents have been diminished by the nonsensical "teen programs" on the Disney Channel that make all adults look like imbeciles. We have been diminished as we have slowly ceded our parental rights to schools who gradually have usurped them one "rule" at a time that we go along with because it seemed like the right thing to do. An example: our kids are not allowed to take an aspirin to school to take for a headache with our approval, but they ARE allowed to be directed to abortion clinics WITHOUT our knowledge! A FB friend of mine, a gentleman who holds a PhD in child psychology, says over and over, "Parents are and always have been the resident experts of their children." I agree 1000%. We have to stop giving our children to the state one step at a time. We have to dare to stand up and speak up and not shut up until something changes. Pam Warren (sorry I haven't figured out how to comment with my name so I have to be anonymous in the box above and sign my name here. I am definitely NOT anonymous.
ReplyDelete