When Jane Hambleton of Fort Dodge, Iowa, found a bottle of booze under the front seat of her 19-year-old son's car, she took out this ad on The Des Moines Register's classifieds:
"Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for 3 weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."
And that got her nationwide attention and kudos from a lot of people!
[She said] "The ad cost a fortune, but you know what? I'm telling people what happened here. I'm not just going to put the car for resale when there's nothing wrong with it, except the driver made a dumb decision," Hambleton said. "It's overwhelming, the number of calls I've gotten from people saying, 'Thank you, it's nice to see a responsible parent.' So far, there are no calls from anyone saying, 'You're really strict. You're real overboard, lady.' "
Steven Hambleton, a freshman business major at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, obviously was not one of the callers. And he didn't feel much like talking when contacted Tuesday.
"I don't think you can print" his response to the ad, his mother said. "He's very, very unhappy."
i'm wondering.. among all the calls she received about having the guts to do something like this, were any of them interested in the car?
Kudos to the mom. Until this kid is emancipated, anything he owns or does is at his parents' pleasure. In the end, he'll be alive and much smarter for it. Too many people handle their kids softly because they are afraid they will "rebel" if treated with the strictness they deserve. These are the kids who die by the carload when they are out carousing drunkenly at 90 mph.
Straight talk from Sid.
Straight talk from Vako.
If because he's 19, then she's over-reacting, or at least reacting because of the wrong reasons. Here in Canada the drinking age is 19, and the US is a poster child for hypocrisy in how they treat drinking (I can only imagine what some European countries think of us).
As long as she was reacting to (an I assume previously opened) bottle of alcohol in the car, then she's doing an awesome job. I'd be pissed if it was my kid, too.
Being a parent isnt about making your kids like you or being their friend. It is about raising them to be responsible adults. And I think she is doing just that.
Jeff, hats off to you fella, for seeing the sense here.
Buy your own car, don't go about sponging off your parents.
He should have left home by that age.
Good gravy, is the entire US populated with this sort of Cuckoo bird?
Pitiful.
As to the mother, well it's her car she can do as she likes with her own possesions.
He suffered enough already..... I am sure he got the message...... Give him the car back you MEANIE!!!!!!!!
Not classy that she would embarrass him like that, and even alert the police to it.
I agree: this shouldn't be such a big deal.
As someone who was born this side of the Vietnam War, I assure you:
This stunt has not taught the kid anything. How about some actual parenting, instead of crazy over-reaction-ing?
If my mother had done that, I would still resent her.
There is absolutely no evidence that he was drinking and driving; maybe he just knew his mom always searched his room.
Raise your hand if you waited until you were 21 to drink.
Hypocrites.
My mom could probably run a race with this "mean mom" and come in second (only because I don't see her making public announcements like this mom did). I thought my mom was trying to ruin my life on a regular basis....come to find out, she's the only thing that saved it. I always felt that I was being controlled, and in a way I was. But only to the extent that I now realize I needed it.
And just a sidenote, I never hated my mom. And I'm still only just now discovering that the reason my mom treated me the way she did is because she knew me well enough (loved me enough to get to know me that well) to know how to discipline me in a way that would not only keep me from doing things she didn't want me to be doing, but also that would make me realize WHY I shouldn't be doing those things...even if it took me a while.
And P.S. a good parent will NEVER be a friend, but they also ALWAYS back up discipline with plenty of love and support.
When I was almost 16, a friend of mine gave me a car for an early birthday present.. Without me breaking any rules and before I even got to drive it, my mother sold it.. And, might I add, i never even saw the money.. Now, I had a mean mom..
For the record, I think the mom had the right to sell the car if it was hers to sell and the son broke the rules (we don't know what kind of rules were set down when he got the car). However, I don't think I would have aired my dirty laundry out in such a public way. And yes, I do have kids.
We have two kids. We are going to talk to our kids about drinking and let them know we want them to wait till they are 21 but if they choose not to and want to drink at 18 then they must do it at home under our supervision.