Friday, October 24, 2008

Horse bolt, gate close

The story is thus

A 15 year old boy went missing in Barrie (just north of Toronto) about two weeks ago. He ran away after an argument with his parents when they took away his X-Box and he hasn't been seen since.

The boy had apparently been addicted to the Call of Duty game on X-Box, playing it incessantly for the past 18 months online with friends, not heeding his parents. The parents even tried taking it away from him and he found it and resumed playing. Now he's missing and they fear he may have been lured away by internet predators.

Ok now before I give my thoughts I just want to say that its sad that he's missing and I feel for the parents. Cant be a good feeling they have right now.

BUT as a West Indian all I got to say is wunnah let this thing get too far. How you mean the chile did playing this game for 18 months and wunnah couldn't mek he stop? 18 months? I mean a chile could possibly hide and be addicted to alcohol and drugs and if you're not that vigilant as a parent you may not notice but video games? Playing online for hours on end, eventually skipping class to play. Wunnah mekkiin sport man. Wunnah let this thing get too far. Look maybe after the first month or so when the novelty should have worn off you should have noticed this thing getting out of hand. Talk to the chile, tek way the game hide it, sell it, mash it up, turn off the internet. All those options should be possible.

Then they said they took away the game and the chile find it and start playing it again. But wait! I know dis is a new age but I remember back in the days if a parent tek way something from you and tell you that you cant play with it, cant touch it den even if dem put it down on the plate next to your dinner, you dares not touch it. Dares not!

So I having trouble with the you took it away and he tek it back up part. Dat is pure lawlessness by the parents. From the time he tek um back up if he had so much audacity that he dare to try that, the X-Box would live up to its name cause it would have become an EX-box as in it used to be in this house but now its gone. I aint care hummuch um did cost. Gone. G O N E! dun way wid! loss way! mash up, thrown in the lake. Call of Duty? Looka by the time I finish wid dat game they woulda been calling it renederd unfit for duty or something so too.

And doan think that you as a chile living under my roof so big that you got you own money dat granny or cousin give you an you could buy a new wun an bring on my premises either cause dat wudda dun get fling out through a door too.

I starting to agree with Will Smith cause dese parents like they just don't understand. Course now is a case of them trying to close the gate after the horse done bolt. Cuhdear

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, you can make the excuse that 15yr olds are hard to deal with and at that age, they are big enough to find ways around their parents. but if he was always playing at home on his parents internet, then ya, no excuse. if you are a parent that is trying to take precautions on internet use, then no way would he have a computer in his room - and if the computer was in a family room, then they would have to see how much he was on - and should have cut it off long time ago. sad though.

Anonymous said...

Dem parents de a jokers star! Trus mi,dem nuh serious star! Too much over indulgence a di kids dem, until di kids dem lose respect fi dem!ESTEBAN AGOSTO REID

Radmila said...

I think that probably one of the biggest problems is that the province has taken away the teeth in parenting.

Combine this with permissive parenting, and treating children like companions with equal say, negotiating things with them rather than putting a foot down...even if it has to be on a toe.

Two parents who work give a kid a lot of leeway. Even if they take the game away, his friends have it, and he can get lured away from someone else's house as well.

Parenting a teenager now, in this age is probably harder than it has ever been...sheltered children who have no idea of the perils of the world, but with all the privileges of decision, with none of the responsibility.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

It must be tough being a parent today, tougher than even the last generation...you should see how many teens here 'disappear' only to turn up at friends' homes...14 year old girls at boyfriends' homes...teens face more peer pressure too, who's telling them how to fight this, how to say no? I wonder how many parents today have good parenting skills.

ruthibel said...

Boy, I remember! Oh how I remember.

We had walkie-talkies, and we became obsessed with the things to the point where we were talking to each other through walkie-talkies even when we were in the same room... My mother got annoyed, cause the sudden spate of constant communication was hindering our house-work and obedience, and everything else (and we played a coupla practical jokes on her too). So. She take them way. And we never see them again. Had the good sense not to look for them either.

Is years later we find them things- when we done outgrow them and have no use for them anymore. Was good memories and laughs we got from it then.

But, back to the point... these parents joking. That horse done bolt long time. Is only now the just realise...

Anonymous said...

Bwoy, my son is 8 now. I wonder what foolishness he will be trying to get up to in his teens...

Olivia said...

I'm 31 and if my mother says N-O, I still listen, I grumble, but I listen!

Somehow my parents got the balance right between early consistent discipline, treating me like an equal, like a best friend, along with lots of affection. Must be that Guyanese thing my mother did. Iron fist in velvet glove...