Boy Refuses to Ride with Drunk, Stoned Parents

How Not to Parent, Lesson 11,873:

A Pennsylvania couple have been charged with drunken driving after their 10-year-old son refused to ride with them, fearing for his safety, police said. Kenneth Sutton, 41, and his wife, Paula, 40, of Monaca, Pa., were charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances and with child endangerment, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

[…]

The unidentified boy told police his father had been drinking and was trying to light a pipe containing marijuana when he crashed into a guard rail, police said. The boy’s mother, who had been traveling in a car in front of them, tried to get the boy to ride with her, but he refused because she too had been drinking, police said.

I don’t know which is sadder: That middle-aged parents could be this damned irresponsible or that UPI thinks that they are shielding the boy’s identity while simultaneoulsy listing his parents’ names and hometown.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. lunacy says:

    Thank God the boy has a good, strong sense of self-preservation.

  2. Michael says:

    Makes you wonder how a child who’s parents’ intelligence (or at least common sense) is at most non-existent, could himself have so much.