Child therapists say that rebellion is a healthy and natural part of growing up, but just how far is healthy and when would rebellion become a problem? KitGuru ponders the nature of ‘too far' while researching the actions of a 16-year old girl in the USA, who tried to bypass an internet access curfew by knocking her parents out.
Following KitGuru's earlier story about some judgement-error-prone teens who posted on Facebook about drunk driving – intoxication rears its ugly head twice in one day.
The town of Rocklin, California has less people living in it than the audience at an Arsenal football match on a Saturday afternoon. But, for such a small town, the local chemist seems remarkably well stocked. The teenage girl and her friend manage to access a knock-out drug from a friend one town over and administered it by including it in late-night milkshakes that they offered to buy for the family.
Her parents didn't quite finish their shakes, but they drank enough to knock themselves out – at which point the young ladies hit the web and got up to all sorts of mischief.
Waking groggy and feeling hungover, the parents bought basic drug testing kits from the local chemist and the results came back positive.
The girl's parents were distinctly unimpressed, marched the culprit down to the local police station themselves and she has been charged with conspiracy and illegally administering pharmaceuticals in food.
The pair spent New Year's Eve in the slammer.
Fortunately for the girls, the latest research into Californian attitudes toward crime and punishment, show a drop in support for the death penalty, so they should be safe.
KitGuru says: It's a hard one for parents. On the one hand you need to provide protection, guidance and a set of rules to live by. On the other, to paraphrase Princess Leia, “The tighter you make your grip, the more teenagers will slip through your fingers”.
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