To the parents of the teen girls I yelled at on Saturday.

[velo_nut]

If your teen girls came home and complained about a mid thirties dad with his 2 year old at the Cloverdale/ 30th ave park, It was me.

Apparently, your girls like to take sharpies and draw crude pictures on the playground equipment and take up the steps area to the slide so the younger ones cant play on it.

Teach your kids to respect private and public property. I refuse to live in a neighborhood where not saying anything is the norm.

If you could send them back with a greenie and a bucket of soapy water to clean up their mess, that would be great.

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[JanS]

I’m with you on that. I’m in the Admiral District. The carport behind my apt. bldg. is a hangout for kids cutting classes)WSHS). They stand under a “No Trespassing” sigh smoking pot. When I tell them to move along, they’re”Yes, ma’am”..and then find “Doobie” written in sharpie on the fence next to us. 1. They can’t read, so should be in class. 2. No respect really, just mouthing the words.

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[rico]

Thank you for speaking up, so refreshing to hear of someone confronting bad behavior.

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[DBP]

The missing ingredient here is: parents.

Being the parent of a wilfull teenager is hard. Especially for single parents. In Washington State there’s a law (the Becca Bill) that allows parents to haul their kids into court and make them go to school, but that takes motivation on the parents’ part. If the parents are too busy to get involved, or just don’t care, then forget about it . . .

* * * * * * * * * *

My neighbor lost her husband to cancer when her son was a teenager. She was a big softie when it came to discipline, and after the father died, the son was pretty pissed off at life, so you can imagine what that was like.

The kid was very likeable. I mentored him a little, but it was awkward; I felt like an interloper. The mom was fine with me playing the father role, but I wasn’t, because I already had two rebellious kids of my own and they were a full-time job.

This story did not have a happy ending.

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[The Highland Park Way]

Kudos to you nut! It can be especially effective and interesting to try to make them give up the number of their parental units and make a little call just to let them know what their darlings are up to.

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[Delres]

Velo_nut Dad is great! My husband and I witnessed the incident and I thanked thanked him for addressing the vandals. For the record, he was firm but respectful. The girls were completely disrespectful and didn’t even acknowledge his address. If I had been addressed like that by an adult as a kid, I would have run away embarassed, crying and apologizing. These bold girls just continued to sit there apathetically, two vapid rocks, oblivious to the fact that there were 2 year olds who would have liked to use the slide, but couldn’t get past their barricade. I couldn’t believe they just sat there vandalizing in front of 5 or 6 witnesses. I admit I watched in silent disbelief for fear of them vandalizing my car. Thanks for speaking up Dad! Your little one is lucky to have a responsible parent, and I’m sure I’ll never catch her doing an act like that!

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[kayo]

Thank you! There is some obscene graffiti at the Delridge soccer field in the dugout where my kids and I like to take a break when on a neighborhood bike ride. Not fun to have to explain to my little kid why someone would do that. I’ve been meaning to get up there and clean it up because it really is gross. Anyway, I appreciate you schooling these young punks. It is not ok. It takes a village and while I doubt it will stop them, at least you shamed them a bit.

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[JoB]

parents.. and if it wasn’t your kid this time…

you might want to ask yourself how your kid would respond to a respectful request from an adult…

if the answer isn’t one you are comfortable with there is no time like the present to share this topic with your kids

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[HMC Rich]

Velo- You ROCK!!! It is usually uncomfortable to try and correct a situation but I have had to at times also. I can’t stand doing it, but at times you have to say something.

My six year old son loves to go to the skate park at Delridge and other places around the city to ride his scooter.

I don’t mind the older teens usually but the younger teens and a few late pre-teens talk in such a profanity laced way it is hard for me to understand why it has become acceptable to drop the F word every seventh word. And they don’t know any better it seems.

I do occasionally ask them to watch their language around young kids. Usually they comply. If not, we leave.

I was at the Burien skate park the other day. Two Sheriff’s deputy’s drove up. It was amazing how nice all the kids were when the officers were there.

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