Indianapolis, IN

Tue 17 July 2007

So, I’m thinking about dumb parents. In Muncie, a 26-year-old woman is facing felony charges over her (alleged) decision to leave her two kids (an 8-year-old and a 6-month- old) with a drunk neighbor (according to www.indystar.com). The neighbor also faces felony charges as well. Not only was he drunk and watching her two kids, but three other kids as well. At one time, he couldn’t find one of the kids, and he didn’t even know the last names of the women whose kids he was watching nor did he know where they were going. In fact, he told police that he really wasn’t sure how many kids were in his care. How stupid can you be?? What the hell is wrong with these people?? But evidently there are several stupid women in that same housing complex who left their kids with this man. (Maybe they all have a “I’m with Stupid” T-shirt on.) It also reminds me of a story I read a few days ago that takes place out in Nevada (I think) where a couple was charged with child neglect because they were so busy playing Dungeons and Dragons online and didn’t take care of their kids, letting them starve. It’s not like there wasn’t food in the house, they were just too involved in their videogame to feed their kids. One of their kids was 22 months and the other one was 11 months. They were dehydrated and had rashes from not having their diapers changed. Again, how stupid can you be? (Now, they’re claiming they have a videogame addiction. Whatever. Call it what you want, but stupid is as stupid does.) It just blows my mind how stupid parents can be. There comes a point after you have a baby when you realize that as a parent, you have to put your child first. And sometimes you don’t get what you want. Now, I’m not saying that I’m the best parent in the world, but come on… is there no internal signal that tells you, “Maybe this isn’t a good idea to leave my child here. This might be potentially dangerous.” I don’t know. Most of these things fall under “common sense,” and how do you teach common sense? I just don’t know. I guess we can just let Darwinism take its course.

: child neglect, public intoxication, video game addiction, common sense, bad parenting, Darwinism