Bad Parenting!

It never ceases to amaze me how the media can spin a story.


Utah Scout feeling 'good' after ordeal

By now, I'm sure most of you have already heard about the missing of this 11 year old boy scout in Utah. After being lost for four days, he was finally found by a volunteer searcher at about five miles away from the origin point. When he was found, it was said that he was extremely dehydrated and that he did not want to talk.

Today, the parents of the boy scout came out and said what I thought was the most absurd things ever:

"Brennan continues to amaze us," said his father, Toby Hawkins.

Brennan's mother, Jody Hawkins, suggested her son may have been avoiding searchers by following his father's advice.

"He had two thoughts going through his head all the time," she said. "Toby's always told him that 'if you get lost, stay on the trail.' So he stayed on the trail.

"We've also told him don't talk to strangers. ... When an ATV or horse came by, he got off the trail. ... When they left, he got back on the trail."

"His biggest fear, he told me, was someone would steal him," she said.

To be honest, I'm not sure how amazing that is. Imagine this - You're a silly scout who decided to run away from your camp. Then, you realize that you've made a horrible mistake and now you're lost. You have no food, no water for four days. You know you are in trouble. All of a sudden, you see people walking along the trail, and you are so dumb that you decide to hide!!!

If this boy was as amazing as his parents claim he is in following instructions, he shouldn't have gotten lost to begin with, because I'm sure that he was told not to run away from the camp, right?

So if I was a news writer, I would spin the story such that the parents did a horrible job at raising this kid in such a way that he did not have any natural survival skills. He is just lucky that he was found by a volunteer searcher by accident.

Who is with me on this?