Actually it was too many cocktails that caused me to write that crazy post!

When I was a kid, my parents cut off all my fingers for pilfering a Snickers. That's why I have to type with my nose.

When I was brought up, my parents drilled into me that they were responsible for my behavior. That they could be sued by any damage that I caused, etc. I knew better.
I remember I was more saddened by my father saying, "I am disappointed in you" than anything.

Now, you can't spank your child because in school, they're told to call 911 if they're touched. They are told they have "rights", and the parents have none. So these kids run wild.

my favorite is the parents who shoplift infront of their children. WHAT LESSON ARE YOU SHOWING THEM!!! or the customers who see other customers steal and don't even tell employees about it!

It's Bush's fault

Obama made them do it!!!!!

I may have done that a time or two when i was younger. But what gets me is when parents know the bike their kid is riding that they didn't buy is stolen and they say nothing. I have had more bikes then I can count that I have bought for my 4 sons stolen and see kids riding them, They were licensed and the parents don't question where it came from.

Here's a strange story featured in Google News about a Janesville incident:

http://consumerist.com/5400831/never-fol...

Motherhen - See? . . .When you want the police, they're never around?? Even for your own son. LOL
.
PS: How many people would do what you tried to do?? Hats off to ya.

Yeah, coming from the cops it would carry a little more weight for a kid. I remember when they used to come to the schools and give talks about that type of thing. It definitely made an impression and probably helped.

spinmaster - I did talk to him about shoplifting and am certainly not expecting the cops to take over my parenting responsibilities. I do think though had the police taken 2 min. to talk to him about the consequences it would have left more of an impression on him than just hearing it from me.

It's kind of the parents' responsibility to talk about shoplifting and that kind of thing with your kids. I don't think you should expect the cops to do that for you.

My son stole candy when he was 6 from a local business. I took him back to the store to make him return it and the lady was way too nice, told him. "That's o.k., thanks for bringing it back!" I was ticked! I called the police department to see if I could bring him in and have an officer talk to him about stealing. They told me they don't have time for that kind of thing. HA! Ridiculous!!

You took the words right out of my mouth, Gary! It's that whole liberal, valueless attitude. Grrrrr

But isn't that Obama's fault?

SarahB1 - Me, too! Ooops!

Cheaply made, over priced jewelry deserves to be stolen. Diamond earrings should be bought and paid for with hard earned money.

I steal from my buddies at the poker table at Harrah's quite regularly.

Totellthetruth and SarahB: Isn't that a great feeling? Of course, except when your heart is broken

Gazettefan: LOL! I thought I knew you from somewhere.

I want it back, Sarah!

I noticed at least one common denominator--the 'lessons' to be learned were from parents who were available to see that something had been stolen, and willing to teach their child a value. Having the 'system' take care of it teaches a consequence to avoid, not a value to learn. There is a relatively short time period--age wise--that a child will 'learn' this way.

Never, but my wife steals a heartbeat every time she walks in the room... ;)

Stole a guy's heart once.

Employee theft is even higher than shoplifting by a customer. I think the percentage we researched for our company 6 months ago was 13%.

Shoplifting is a significant problem. It's estimated that more than $13 billion in property is shoplifted every year. That breaks down to $35 million per day. It has actually put some small merchants out of business.

As a 8 y/o child I stole a baseball glove from the dime store and got away with it too. That is until I got home and my mother found out about it. After she smacked me a good one she took me by the arm and marched my butt down to store where I had a little meeting with the store manager. Then she grounded me for a week but they didn't have me arrested. The whole experience was enough to teach me that I didn't want to be doing that again.