I understand the impulse to call the cops on your teenage kid. It's an urge a father should resist, and I predict a bad outcome for a family down in Everly.
The head of the household was rooting around in his 17-year-old's bedroom. He found a little pot and some drug paraphernalia, so he called the sheriff and invited Officer Friendly to search the rest of the house. More contraband was discovered, and Pops waved bye-bye to Junior as the forces of law and order hauled him off to the clink.
Family values, eh?
Better alternatives suggest themselves. You might have been able to talk to the kid. If not, a boxing lesson was in order, from you if you're fit enough or otherwise from a well-muscled uncle, maybe. Choosing to invite the po-po to handle your family dysfunction leads to problems you weren't smart enough to think of. Among them:
1. Sooner or later the cops are going to send him back, and Father's Day at your house is likely to be a restrained celebration.
2. You're probably stuck with him for longer than you planned. The arrest makes him a good deal less employable. Even the Army won't be anxious to take him off your hands.
3. If your motive was to teach the lad a good lesson, you undoubtedly did: "My Old Man is a Treacherous Bastard."
4 comments:
Not to mention with modern asset-forfeiture laws he could lose his house.
I would like to posit that a very similar circumstance would change the outcome dramatically.
Specifically, if Junior finds himself in the custody of Johnny Law, not running up there, taking him out, and Making It All Go Away is a good idea. He earned him some bad marks. So he gets to keep 'em.
I can neither confirm nor deny that this very situation happened to me in my youth, and I'm also unable to verify that it changed the entire relationship dynamic with my parents and garnered the utmost respect as a result.
Just sayin, it could happen.
tweaker
It certainly could.
I'm sure my reaction to this particular dad was colored by my attitude toward the stupidly brutal pot laws.
Also, the boy would have been guilty of underage possession no matter who ratted him out. That probably should be an offense, but I'd rather see it treated the same as possession of tobacco or alcohol. A bust for other drugs is a Hell of a stigma for someone to carry.
Ah, the "Good Citizen." Gotta wonder why he doesn't think things through first.
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