Well this topic is like a double edge sword since there are some parents that care and some that don’t. It depends on the situation. Most kids develop their own minds at an early age and sometimes they can be reached while at other times some can’t be reached. The issue really lies in the fact that our children have to learn and understand that there are consequences for the choices they make. Holding the parents responsible does not in any way really teach or affect the children enough to make a difference. When the child sees that they are accountable for their actions then they will learn from the experience. I know that most of the kids I have talked to seem to think that if they are going to commit a crime that they should do it while they are young so that it doesn’t show on their adult records. The problem with this is that most of the kids who think this way learn how to beat the system so that when they become adults they are more coy than we realize. Kids today are much more influenced than they use to be for the fact that our media only seems to portray the bad and they don’t focus enough on the good that people are capable of doing. If the parents should be charged then shouldn’t the media and their friends also be charged. We all have the responsibility to lead by example.
Most of the time it is very hard for parents to know what their children are really up to. I know that I hid a lot from my mom and she was constantly in my room going through my things trying to keep on top of what I was doing. Even the tenacity that she had to keep tabs on me did not keep me from hiding things that I was doing from her. Children learn the habits of their parents and are more capable of keeping the things they are doing from the parents. What it boils down to is that you can be the most caring, loving, and observant responsible parent there could be and still your child could be out committing crimes that you have no clue they are doing. Punish the children to correct the behavior not the parents, because even if the children are taught better they still can become victim to committing crimes. After all it is not the parent who told the child to commit the crime it was the choice of the child to follow through with the crime. It is time to make our children responsible for their actions instead of the parents being punished for the actions of their child. The only true way to get to the children and help them is to make them fully responsible for their own actions no matter how old they are.