As the one who bears the heavy responsibility of raising a child up into adulthood, a parent will ultimately forever be connected to the success and failures of their child even as they get into their big age; you can say a parent’s role is a lifetime commitment.
As a society, foundation is everything, evident in the popular scripture that many like to quote encouraging parents to instill values in their children from an early age.
“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it,”-Proverbs 22:6
Society knows as a whole that if a person, more specifically a child, is not given the proper tools, education, or discipline early on, they are doomed to stray away from the start. Even if the law stops holding a parent responsible for their child’s actions, that’s an entirely different case when it comes down to the court of public opinion.
“They always look back at the parents no matter what age, they always look back and say ‘Who were their parents? Who raised them?” said Sandra Ewen, a clinic nurse. “The fault always goes back to the parent because if the parent had instilled good values in their children the majority of the time, they wouldn’t turn out the way they are.”
Uvalde gunman 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who killed 19 students and two teachers in his former fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary, grew up with a mother who struggled with drug abuse. A former girlfriend also alleged that Ramos was sexually assaulted by one of his mother’s boyfriends. If Ramos had grown up in a better environment or had been raised by a better parent, perhaps he might not have turned out the way he did. Preventing such a tragedy as we know today as the Uvalde mass shooting.
“You need to get a tight grip on your child early because once they get up about 14-16 it’s hard to regain focus on them,” said physiology major Jada Meeks.
Not every child that grows up with “bad parents” turns out like Ramos, and not every child who grows up with morally straight parents turns out walking a narrow and straight path all the time. Sometimes a parent can instill values and spend tons of time pouring into their child, and their child moves on an entirely different path. “There is a saying “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.”
“You shouldn’t have to be responsible for the actions of your 16-17 year old kid because at that point they should know right from wrong,” said Jireh Jones, a FAMU student.