|
11/19/2013
We came home one day and saw that my bolted down handgun safe in the closet was preyed up and gone, leaving the damaged floor behind. I summoned my wife. She said, "We were burglarized." "No," I responded, "our son took it." I convinced her to follow me down to his Arby's Restaurant job, where I told the manager I needed to speak with my son. He told me I could come back at the end of his shift, to which I replied, "Here are your options. I'm going to hop over this counter and grab my son by the collar, or you can go ask him to come meet with his parents right now for 5 minutes." He chose door No. 2. A long story made short: I told our son I wanted only 2 questions answered right then and we would settle up later on the entire matter. 1) Where is the gun? 2.) Who else was involved? The denial was of course, classic, as was the visit later from the deputy. He confessed to the police, plead guilty to theft, and was sentenced.
But, here's the problem. This happened 10 years ago and to this day my wife regrets supporting me. The son, remains a knucklehead, and one can only imagine the correlation between his adult criminal behaviors and his dysfunctional parents who could not come together on such a basic form of discipline early on. I believe my wife has a distorted understanding of what it takes to be "liked" by your children and the relative non-importance of that altogether. She thinks that calling the police is always too extreme. My insistence that the jails are filled with people whose parents echo that sentiment falls on deaf ears. It is baffling to me. What's even more remarkable is that our adult children struggle with their mother in a meaningful relationship and without saying so give every indication that they wouldn't hesitate themselves to call the police on their own kids, if warranted. Lastly, I am incredulous to learn of the number of otherwise reasonable female friends of my wife who give tacit approval to this idea of NEVER turning in your own. I don't know of a man in my circle of acquaintances who feels same. What is it about women??
Larry
|
