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Unsupervised Children Get Into Trouble
In a reported accident in Ghaziabad, India on February 10, 2008, an 11-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital after being shot in the head, apparently after she and her younger brother had been playing with a loaded revolver when no adult was at home (Kumar). In another case a 13-year-old in Roseville, California was arrested on Monday, February 11, 2008 after reportedly ringing a random man’s door bell, waiting for him to answer and then shooting him with a pellet gun (Campos). There are cases like these all over the news every day and one question comes to mind: Where are the parents? In a society in which the image of the stay-at-home mother of the 1950’s has, for the most part, disappeared and has been replaced for the need for both parents to enter the work force in order to better provide for the sustainability of the family, leaving a vast number of children unattended. The consequences for leaving children unsupervised for any number of hours can be devastating like an increased probability of engaging in delinquent behaviors like the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and/or drugs, the carrying of weapons, becoming violent, engaging in anti-social behaviors, and even academic performance incompetence. There are many solutions to the question of leaving children unattended: after-school programs, sports, work, or even the possibility of daycare, a nanny, or a family member who could care for them until a parent arrives.
A few years ago, it used to be that only the one parent, usually the father, was the sole provider of the household. Thus, the mother stayed at home to care for the house and children. However, that rapidly changed with the Women’s Movement of the 60’s and women entered the work-force. With both working parents, children were, many times, left to care for themselves with nothing but a “promise to be good”. In the early years of these happenings society became blind to the...