My local train station is currently burning down

[thehardestpartis]

Reportedly due to children being on the station at 5:45 this morning and setting fire to an equipment cabinet.

AIBU to ask where the hell are the parents?! This will cause chaos in the town, reduce holiday maker visits and just generally worsen an already run down town.

The parents should be punished for arson with intent to endanger life, as should the children.

Oh I dunno. My mum managed to ignore me just fine in the '80s without benefit of a mobile phone.

Of course that never happened in the 1970s.

Do you genuinely think that how people are parented has no bearing on how they behave as adults? That there's no difference in outcome for people who were carefully and responsibly parented, with discipline, than for those whose parents just ignored them and let them get away with anything, as long as they (the parents) weren't put out in any way?

I think people are saying that the OP is talking absolutely out of her arse generally, to be fair.

Of course it does. But there were just as many shit parents in the 70s/80/90s as there are today- in fact, there may well have been more at many times. My grandparents had utterly shit parents.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Just because they do something in the US, that doesn't automatically make it the wrong thing for anybody to do. They eat a lot of bread, drive cars and wear clothes in the USA - does that mean that we shouldn't do any of those here?

We can unconditionally condemn Mussolini and his odious beliefs and actions, without point-blank refusing to ever contemplate improving the timekeeping of our trains, lest we end up as evil as him.

That'll be good for the falling birth rates 😂
You do know people have been saying this since the year dot?
Everyone's a critic 😑

It’s true though isn’t it.

What good does adding a load of kids who do nothing but set fires and make the local area miserable do? They won’t ever work or contribute to society.

be kids think they have nothing better to do.

Bad parents have indeed always existed - and one way of many in which this is manifesting is in children committing arson. That doesn't necessarily mean that there was more or less arson around in decades gone by, or whether it was more skewed towards different crimes.

Over time, some crimes change, some stay the same; but all of them are made far more likely as a result of appalling parenting.

To be fair “they’ve got nothing to do” or some other such mealy mouthed excuse.

It's not true, it's eugenics. Are you a fascist?

Actually the trains running on time was due to a long term programme of repair work & investment that began before Mussolini.

So I think there probably needs to be some proper evaluation of US parenting and criminal justice system before it’s held out as a model.

Having seen my lovely lovely friend go through hell with her wayward teen I don't think prosecuting the parents is the answer ... she couldn't have done more for that boy.

I know that's not always the case but it's not as black and white as 'shit parenting' ... some kids are very non compliant and do go through a horrible phase and there's very little their parents can do to be honest. If the teen won't listen and or stick to any curfew/boundaries/bribes/rewards/reasoning .... this lad would just climb out the window and he was off. His mum would lock all the doors and windows ... he broke their backdoor to get out. She couldn't force a 6ft lad to stay put, nor could her DH without it all getting very physical and nasty.

It got to a point where she wanted him out to protect her younger children, but was then really stressed about what he was up to in the neighbourhood ... it's a very very difficult situation to be in. She pleaded for help with him and got nothing. The stress almost killed her.

So who gets to set the test? The Government of the day? What do you do with people who fail and then have children? Do you remove the children? Force medical procedures?
What an authoritarian crock of shit.

Is it fascism to say this?

Fair enough, but you get the point. Hitler was said to be a vegetarian - whether that was true or not - but that doesn't make being vegetarian wrong!

At any rate, holding parents responsible for their children's actions is hardly a unique concept to the USA.

Yes eugenics is a tool of fascism

Is it eugenics, or is it just acknowledging that some people aren’t fit to be parents?

Requiring a 'licence to breed' is eugenics

Except now in huyton, just up the road from were I live, if the police turned up, they'd get fireworks thrown at them, cheered on by the parents. I grew up and lived in rough parts of Liverpool. We never had buses refusing to run after 7pm, or teens banned from entering retail/take aways etc. Security on Macdonalds etc. We didn't have the crimes being committed, that we do now. But then the adults around us could grab us and give us a smack. Businesses are making decisions to close because of youth crime. We had shops getting robbed during hard times, in the 80s, but not crime for fun. Teen behaviour is a issue. It starts at home, then in the schools. We need to get rid of inclusion, have early intervention and properly funded education. But we had 14 years of a conservative government who knew nothing but cuts and austerity.

No it’s eugenics

you think that you can judge how a fit parent can be defined. That’s fascism

I agree. But I'm suspicious of the idea we can just import elements from different justice systems without a proper evaluation of what they are seeking to solve, how they work in practice and their likely impact/cost to the UK. It's a bit like saying we need a French health system without acknowledging that the French government has paid more for healthcare per capita for decades. We miss key details.

Of course it's not true. Back in the "good old days" many people had kids not because they wanted them but because it was just what you did.
Neglectful parenting isn't new.
Neither are feral kids running around setting fires and breaking into places.

I remember the '80s/'90s as a teenager and a young parent. It was bedlam. Just like now.

So why are their rates of recidivism twice as high as ours?