Periodically someone comments here that perhaps parenting should require a license, just as it is a requirement for driving a car or, in some places, owning a dog.
A trio of stories in the news this week make that look like a very good idea.
First comes word out of Butler County, Kan., of Adam Herrman, an 11-year-old boy who disappeared.
His adoptive parents failed to report him missing.
For nearly 10 years.
An anonymous call to the Exploited and Missing Children’s Unit in a neighboring county during the last days of last year brought his disappearance to light, and authorities have spent the past week searching the home of Doug and Valerie Herrman, who adopted the boy when he was 2, as well as the mobile-home park where they used to live.
Adam ran away in 1999, the Herrmans say, after they had punished him by spanking him with a belt. They feared that if they reported him missing, and told authorities about the belt, their two younger children would be taken from them.
That was also why they continued to accept $700 a month from the state for his care, they told the Wichita Eagle newspaper, and why they listed him as a dependent on their taxes all these years.
The couple denied charges of abuse, saying that the only reason Adam was locked in the bathroom every night with a pillow and blanket was because they feared he would stab them while they slept.
The county sheriff says the Herrmans are “persons of interest” in the investigation, but they can’t be charged until investigators unravel what to charge them with. At the moment no one knows if Adam is alive or dead, and there are many questions about how an 11-year-old can simply disappear without anyone noticing.
Also this week, a 6-year-old in Wicomico, Va., who had missed his bus, climbed into his family’s 2005 Ford Taurus and tried to drive himself to school while his mother was home asleep.
According to the Associated Press,
He made at least two 90-degree turns, passed several cars and ran off the rural two-lane road several times before hitting an embankment and utility pole about a mile and a half from school.
The boy told police he learned to drive playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Jam video games.
“He was very intent on getting to school,” said Northumberland County Sheriff Chuck Wilkins. “When he got out of the car, he started walking to school. He did not want to miss breakfast and P.E.”
The child was taken to the hospital to be checked for what turned out to be only minor cuts and bruises, and officers returned him to school in time for lunch. His parents have been charged with child endangerment, and he and his 4-year-old brother have been placed in protective custody.
Grand Theft Auto, for the record, is rated M, for mature players. (To quote the box, it contains: realistic violence, intense violence, blood, strong language and sexual content.)
And finally, this from Tuesday’s Middletown Journal, in Middletown, Ohio. The day after New Year’s, a family of four — parents and their two young children — entered the local Dollar General Store. As they left an employee noticed that the mother’s purse seemed “noticeably larger than it had been minutes earlier.”
When the employee asked to search the bag the woman ran, dumping stolen contents as she fled. Among those items: wash cloths, small hand towels, a small rug and a book entitled “101 Ways to Be a Great Mom.”
Comments are no longer being accepted.