Be the Parent

 

 POLICE LIMIT

I found the above cartoon a few weeks back and it got me thinking about this post. In fact, I have been stifling today’s post for, well, about my entire career. As a police officer I, like a great many of my brethren, have been dispatched to speak with a “parent” about their children. The overwhelming majority of those calls generally turn out to be the “parent” wanting the police to correct the child’s behavior because the “parent” either can’t or won’t do it themselves.

Here’s a fun fact for those “parents.” It’s not the job of the police to be the parent for your children.

IT’S. YOUR. JOB.

You’re the adult. Put on your big boy or girl pants and BE THE PARENT. You are not supposed to be their best friend. You’re supposed to provide them the things they need physically (clothing, nourishment & shelter) to grow and also to provide them with the guidance & direction to become at least functional adults.

For those of you who are those “parents,” here is a short list of some of the things that the police are not responsible doing regarding YOUR children:

1. Make them behave for you.
2. Make them obey you.
3. Scare your children because they will not behave for or obey you.
4. Making them follow your rules, particularly when you wait until they are teenagers to impose your rules.
5. Make them go to school when they refuse to do it for you.
6. Make them do their homework.
7. Make them clean their bedrooms.
8. Make them eat their breakfast, lunch or dinner.
9. Make them stay in their car seats or seat belts. We will however ticket YOU for not ensuring this. Is it a double standard? It may be. But we’ll do it anyway. Sue us.
10. Make them turn of their video games or televisions.
11. Make them stop watching inappropriate movies or television shows.
12. Make them stop listening to specific types of music.
13. Make them go to other relatives houses.
14. Change their diapers unless we are there because of improper care (i.e. ABUSE) of your child by YOU. Then we will because you’ll be in handcuffs and unable to do it yourself.
15. Allow your children to make decisions best left for adults because YOU refuse to or unable to do it yourself.

I’m sure that the above list hits the major things that the police won’t do for regarding your children. My fellow law enforcers out there can probably list many more, but this should be a pretty good list for those “parents” out there to work with.

Hopefully I have cleared up a few things for those "parents." And if any officers out there have more to add to the list, feel free to leave a comment below. And an appreciative Shout-Out to the cartoonist of Police Limit, Garey McKee, for allowing me to use his work in this post. You can check his work out by clicking the link below the picture at the top of this post.

Good luck to you.