Look, Parenting!
I was reading about the Ryan Schallenberger bomb thing today and was struck by something; this kid has real parents.
Okay, clearly something was a little messed up in the home, or the kid wouldn’t want to blow up his school, but it can’t be all bad. I was impressed that the parents were a little taken aback at receiving 10 pounds of Ammonium Nitrate in the mail. I didn’t know you could send that stuff through the post. The Ny Times article goes on to say they searched his room and found a journal that made the police describe him as an “angry young man”.
Okay, so they followed that first rule of good parenting; don’t assume your child is a criminal without reason. And from the articles I’ve read, Ryan was a good kid. But when ingredients for explosives turn up on your door, it’s time to rethink that.
Next, when it looks like your child might be a danger to himself and others look for more evidence. Sadly, they found it. It isn’t sad that they found out his plan, it’s sad that he had the plan to begin with.
Finally, deal with that danger. Just imagine if Harris or Klebold’s parents had been paying any kind of attention to them. I can’t imagine how hard it is to turn your own kid in as a bomber/murderer. But they did and that’s pretty impressive.
Now, don’t take this as a chance to ransack your kid’s room looking for guns, drugs, and explosives. Most teens aren’t about to snap and kill everyone in town. That would require way too much effort on their part. However, when little Timmy wants to head down to the local TSC for 50 lbs of fertilizer and you live in an apartment building, maybe it’s time to do a quick scan around his room.
Nothing really funny about that, it’s just I thought it important to point out when parents act like responsible adults, since it doesn’t seem to happen quite often enough anymore.
Tune in next time when a giant rabbit eats all of the cabbage in London and all the Eastenders starve.
