I can tell you though that SOME people shouldn't have kids. As some of you know, my husband and I own a bike/skateboard shop (I'm at work now). About 4 or 5 years ago, a mother came in with her kids to buy them some bikes. The oldest kid, Michael (not his real name) was about 11 or 12 at the time. I have to say, in my business, I have seen ALOT of kids. Some brats, but mostly good kids. THIS boy scared the hell out of me. He had empty eyes, even at that age.
Over the next few years the mother would come in for bike parts, mostly tubes, skateboard parts...you know, the kind of stuff you get when you have kids. Everytime she would come in it was "Michael got mad and took a baseball bat to his bike", or "Michael got suspended AGAIN for swearing at the teacher", and in the very same breath would tell me ALL the reasons it wasn't Michael's fault!! It was always that he had ADHD, or that he had a condition that made it hard for him to respect authority and "no one at that school understands my son"!!
Once she came in, and in the presence of her sons told me that she *might* let the boys father see them...maybe. They had been divorced for years.
She came in about a year ago, and Michael was with her. She angrily told me that Michael was sneaking out of the house at night and roaming the streets. The police brought him home at 4 am one night. Then, with tears in her eyes, she told me that there had been a MURDER in her neighborhood, the night the police brought him home. What if the killer had hurt Michael?? She was worried sick!! And the whole time she was telling me this story, Michael stood there with a scary little smile on his face, as though the whole thing was quite amusing. She bought him everything he wanted that day, and left.
She came in again on Wednesday of this week. She told me that Michael had to go to Family Court on a charge of domestic violence. THEN she proceeded to tell me why it's all Michael's girlfriends fault!! She said that the girlfriend's mother SET HIM UP!! She then told me that after court, Michael had to go stay in Boys Town, that it was Michael's last chance. She said she felt awful, because he was so scared he cut himself over it. She said she came in to buy him some trucks for his skateboard because "skating is the only thing that makes him happy". When I asked what brand of trucks he liked, she called him at home to ask him. The next thing I heard was her shouting," Don't you use that language with me!". She gets off the phone and tells me that since Michael would like to pick out the trucks himself, she will bring him by later in the week!!
Gee, I can't wait!
