So we are going to blame the kids ?
You hung out at a mall outside 4 hours after closing?
Didnât the Mall close at 10:00? Thats 1 1/2 hours after closing. The Mall I hung out at was open 24/7. It had a huge cinema in it with 4 or 5 movie theatres. There were pubs in it that stayed open until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. There were always teenagers hanging out.
what on earth was a child of 12 years old doing hanging around outside a mall at almost midnight... ?.. clearly parents who let them run wild... there's no good comes of hanging about in the streets after dark...
That was my though also. Where were the parents???????????/
I'm positively sure these were responsible NRA members.
For me, it's not a matter of blaming the children but yes, WTH is a 12 year old doing out that time of night, at a mall no less?! Unless he/she was tagging along with an older sibling. If not, that's a parental problem. When we were that age, we had better be our houses when the street lights went out...in fact before that. We had enough respect and healthy fear of our parents not to want to find out what would happen if we weren't. These days, children get too much freedom, to talk to their parents any way they want...to do what they want and look what's happening! We are seeing terrible problems with young people that we never saw when I was young.
Well, when I was 12 was the year my parents bought a cottage and theyâd often leave us home on our own. We would party every weekend and my parents knew. Weâd also sometimes do gigs at the mall with the stage band we were in and go to the bars ( restaurants)afterwards for drinks and some food. That started when I was 13. Sometimes we went with our parents but most times they went by themselves.
You pointed out something else that's important. Times have changed. Things it was safe to do and places that were safe to go to back then may be unsafe now. Your being in a bar that young made me think of when I was a little girl, my father took me to a bar that had a little monkey toy playing drums. What you experienced sounds fun and sad at the same time. Today's parents who leave their children alone to the degree your parents did may be subject to review by Division of Youth and Family Services (if reported), unless the older brother is the age of majority (considered an adult). Was yours?
Yes, things were very different back then. A twelve year old kid shouldnât have been out at a mall but the most obvious fault is the kid with a gun. If he had no gun, seven children wouldnât have been injured.
To quote H.Rap Brown
Well those who choose to solve their issues by shooting are always going to be at fault, no doubt. I'm sorry to read about the tragic way you lost one of your brothers. That must've been devastating for the entire family.
I think lying to protect your family was a natural reaction for a young person. Even those who have the most abusive parents have been known to do it. About the hot knives...LOL. Can tell I wasn't into drugs, huh. You left home at a very young age. Seems you've had an interesting life Patty.
