Parents of Va. 6-year-old who drove due in court

this child was 6, he had no supervision in the morning because his mother was sleeping. He had to get himself ready and make adult decisions like what should this child wear, what will he eat, how will he get to school. he missed the bus and rather than wake up his mother (who would probably become retaliatory for being disturbed....yes I feel comfortable making that assumption) he took the keys and drove himself to school based upon what he has learned from a video game rated above his age level.
This child was neglicted.....endangered, and endangering others. These parents failed at every turn here and should be dealt with by the authorities.
I fear that your failure to look at this clearly displays your own lax attitude toward parenting......scary really!

My point about what my sister and I went through with our mother being sick, is that if that would have happened today and the authorities would have found out about it, there is a good chance they would have intervened and quite possibly taken us away from our parents. Someone today could call it 'abuse' even though we were eating well, getting our school work done and keeping up with our chores. I can honestly say that while she was sick, the household cleaning still got done including the laundry. My mother has ALWAYS had a bad temper and the neighbors knew about it from her shouting at us from time to time, but it stopped there: she gave us spankings when we needed and deserved it, but it was never excessive. Today, just her shouting would have gotten her in trouble and considered 'abusive.' Again, an example of how things have changed, and in some ways, not for the better.

Throw the Mother in jail and throw away the key. I'm sorry, but this is not the first time she has had problems being a parent. Heck, she doesn't even know what a parent is. Bravo to the kid for trying to take care of himself, but he still needs guidance and direction, and apparently he isn't getting it.

The skills may be there, but the adult emotions (and the self-control) don't come any earlier for our kids today. I'll bet you yourself can feel very sad and lost about the time when your mom was so sick when you were young. Even though she couldn't help it, you probably felt abandoned sometimes. These babies still need their parents, even when they have their own Facebook account!!! (smile!)

It sounds to me like when your mom was sick, your parents were very responsible getting the neighbors involved, etc. And, you had your 11 year old sister. My 11 year old gets herself ready for school, gets her own breakfast, and feeds her animals every morning...and then I take her to school. At 11, she is quite capable of handling responsibilities, just like your sister. Could she do all that at six? No...not without direct supervision!

Something to the side of this case that is interesting to note: children are learning to read, write, do math problems, even use computers at much earlier ages than before. With all this learning comes responsibilties at earlier ages too. So we have kids learning things at earlier ages, but yet we expect them to not grow up at younger ages? It does not excuse this situation, but it does highlight what we are creating through how we are educating children and letting them use modern technology such as computers at such early ages.

I gently submit that your mother was ill and couldn't help you. Sounds like in the current case, the mother has been found negligent before and this is just one more example. Big difference! Sorry your mother was so ill when you were young though . . .

What the article did not mention is that there was a previous court order for the dad not to leave the kid alone with his mom.

with Mark. One incident shouldn't ruin a whole family's lives. Just makes me wonder how many innocent people are in jail.

My sister reminded me of when our stay at home mother was very ill and we did have to see ourselves off to school. My sister was 11 and I was 8. Our father had to be up and gone very early to his job. We were brought up to be responsible at an earlier than normal age because of the circumstance. We had neighbors that checked to see that we did get off to school: we had to check in with them. But we were responsible for getting ready for school, getting breakfast, fixing our lunches and getting out the door on time. When we got home, we checked in with our neighbors, then we had chores to do. About two hours later, our father would arrive home and fix dinner. This went on for over a month. Were we neglected? I guess by today's standard, we were. Back then, people thought of it as a necessary circumstance. My sister and I survived the experience without any trauma or other difficulties. We became responsible at an earlier age. It goes to show you how times have changed.

I am stunned by your insisting on blatant government intervention in people's home lives. It's not as if this sort of thing happens every day in the first place, but just because it happened, doesn't mean the child was neglected. According to you, any time any kid does the slightest thing wrong, the government should be able to put parents in prison and take away the child. That is a downright scary principle to go by. That smacks of nazism at its worst and its definitely not what America should become, but because of harsh actions like this, we're definitely headed that way. Parents should be held responsible for their children's actions, but putting them in prison and taking their kids away for something like this is definitely not the answer. As I said in an earlier post: IF there is evidence of a pattern of child abuse and/or neglect, THEN more serious action should be taken.

now that this story has reminded me of my early school days, I'd like to tell a story about what my mother did to me when I was six years old when our family lived in Puerto Rico. I remember it so well because it is a tragic event that happened to me. I was in the first grade and one day I missed my bus. My mother was so angry that I had to stay home with her all day because she had no way to get me to school, the next morning she woke me up at 4 am and made me get dressed to start walking to school. It was still dark outside I was afraid. That was my punishment for missing the bus the day before. I was so scared and I kept begging her to let me stay and catch the bus and that I would never miss it again.
Mom if you're reading this story, you should be ashamed of yourself. I can't even read the newspaper without it reminding me of what you did to me when I was a little girl. Anything could have happened to me and looking back I feel like you truly enjoyed tormenting me. I eventually got to ride the bus and I guarantee you I never another bus again. I wonder what she would have done to me had I have gotten her keys and drove the car to school. I bet I wouldn't be alive to be typin

I want to break this to you gently, but having your mom not get up with you on a schoolday when you were six was *not normal responsible parenting behavior.* I guess it is more common than I had thought, but that doesn't make it right. Forgive your mom, now that you are an adult, but pls raise your own parenting bar higher, because the way your mom did it is just wrong!

What kind of parent isn't awake to see a 6 year old off to school? I commend the kid for wanting to get to school, the breakfast part is concerning, but his heart was in the right place. Unfortunately the parents are totally irresponsible, and I for one would like to see them severely punished.
I'm a senior citizen, so I'm told, but honest to God what happened to "parenting? Are people really that stupid? Maybe parenting skills should be a required subject in both elementary and high school. Somewhere along the line parents have GOT to be taught how to parent and what being a parent means. Lord help us!

The remarks markk made regarding the government getting involved in cases like this floored me! Everyone knows that the law states parents/guardians are responsible for their kids until they are 18. Now I realize teenagers can be rebellious and runaway and parents might actually have no control. But a child who is 6 years old!!! Come on Markk, do you realize how bizarre that is to think the parents are not responsible for his taking their car keys and driving their car until it wrecked??? The only way they would not be responsible is if the child outran the mom and took off in the car with her running after it while calling the police!!! Neglect, neglect, neglect!

This child was very smart. He must watch the news enough to know that "NO CHILD SHOULD BE LEFT BEHIND". It is awesome that this child put his education first. Well, I mean he wanted to eat first but still he thought of his education in Phys Ed. As for the parents. let the mom out. If this child knew enough to get up and get dressed and drive the family car....then he should have been smart enough to wake mom up. I remember having to wake my mom on numerous occasions just to get lunch money. I'm sure this will never happen again. Let the kids go home before they are scarred for life.

This situation speaks to the vast number of people who have children and are not responsible enough to care for them. There are too many neglected and abused little ones. Just ask your area Dept. of social Services.
This child might just make it in spite of his parents. At six, he shows more determination than many adults! It is a tragic statement of the facts in today's society that he had to get himself ready and then find a way to get to school while his father was illegally away from the home and the mother couldn't get herself out of bed.
Please believe that this is not the only case like this. I had a first grace student who, at the age of six, got herself and three younger siblings up every morning, got them dressed and fed them bowls of cereal before getting on the bus. Where were the guardians? They were in bed - too lazy to care for these children. The parents? One in jail for sexual abuse of the children; the other in psychiatric care.
Children have so many abilities, even at this young age. They deserve so much better than what society allows. Authorities need to find loving homes for these two and the others who are lost in our flawed system.

while her 6 year old has to get himself ready for school and on a bus should be held without bond. Father at work, I can understand his not being there, but holy moly, either put children in day care or stay up long enough to get them to school. And, while we are at it, what was the 4 year old supposed to do all day while mom laid up in the bed? Terminate parental rights, these children obviously can raise themselves, they sure have a better set of work ethics than mom does.

IF it is true the parents have a reputation for neglecting their kids, then and only then should the police put the parents in prison and the children be put into protective custody. If not, then the child should be turned over to them for punishment and let the parents deal with the consequences with their insurance company. Yes, the kid did drive six miles and wreck the car, luckily without hurting anyone including himself. Yes, kids are learning to drive at young ages - at least they THINK they are learning to drive by playing video games. That again goes back to the responsibility of the parents.
Letting or demanding the government get involved every time a kid does something wrong like this only enforces the idea of having the government raise our children - and that idea is completely unacceptable and downright scary to me.

The county I live in, we had some Drunk Parents have their 10 year old daughter drive them home one afternoon. Our law enforcement did the same thing; parents were arrested and taken to jail for Child Endangerment and the Child was placed with SRS. So, yes this is very different circumstances, but the outcome was the same. It is a scary day when a kid can actually drive a car that far! I don't think I could have made it out of the driveway when I was 6.... Have a great day!