Are Parents Responsible For The Choices Their Children Make?

i think so, atleast up unto the point where the kid knows right from wrong and then after that as long as as a parent you taught your child the right way no one can blame you and you shouldnt blame yourself either.

I think that you raise a child to a certain age and then they take over. You may not want them to but they do. You are the one that instills morals and values in your child. What your child does with that in their teenage years is up to them. In my opinion if my child does something at the age where he is legally responsible then he/she has to be held accountable. If my child who is younger does something then I see to it that he/she is punished. There is no way that in that situation can the girl be at fault and the boy not be. Would I support my child if he/she did something wrong yes I would. But I would not excuse what he/she did. And I certainly would not put all the blame on the other person. If I needed to then I myself would call the police on my own child, especially if he/she did something wrong that may hurt another person.

I agree with Lou, parents should be held resposible to teach thier kids moral responsbility and to be a good influence. But sometimes even if you have brought up your kids the wrong way that can do bad things. Unfortunately society teaches our children things as well. But I believe to a degree the parents are responsible because it is their job to teach their children right from wrong, but like I said it is not only parents who raise children, it is the schools, and their friends that teach them as well, so I think parents should not take all the blame, but should take some of it. If this boy assaulted this girl and his parents think that the girl has no moral values because she reported him, then very likely they are at fault though, and don't hold their own children to any moral standards. If they turn a blind eye at what he has done, and blame the victim instead, and it happens again, then they will be part of the problem, and even more so responsible.

i think parents are responsibel for the influence they have in the choices their children make but ultimately the only person who is truly responsible for a decission is the person who made it

I guess it depends upon the situation though but in most cases since most parents do care about their children, they make themselves responsible for it eventhough they shouldn't be.

I agree with many people who have posted here. Parents are resposible for teaching their children morals values, etc.. They are not responsible for the decisions that child makes. We all are born with free will and you can't make people behave and make the choices you want them to make unless they themselves want to.

So it would seem that we are responsable to some degree. I don't think that this means that we should be held just as accountable as the kid-because we all have choices to make and even as adults we do not always make the best choice.

This is such a difficult one to deal with for any parent. It's not easy dealing with a child who is in trouble with the police on any level. It's very easy for parents to not take the blame but to blame others for their child's choice. This makes it difficult to dicuss. It is almost as parents want to here that they did all they could and someone else is to blame. I'm torn in this one because I feel that parents are responsible for their children, yet perhaps not their eventual choices in life. I feel that if parents raise their children with morals, that you don't see children making such mistakes. Though, I could not tell you what I thought occured in parenting or that family that would cause a child to break away from the norm of the family. Meaning, I can't tell you why a child from an upstanding family suddenly begins stealing or what not. I could suspect it was because the child was not receiving the attention he wanted. Perhaps the child simply thought it would be cool with his friends. There are so many factors that could influence a child. Just as the other friend, in this story the girl, could have been influenced by many factors. She may have thought it would keep her "man" happy. Perhaps she really didn't have any values and was talking the boy into it. I would say the best bet would be if these parents could sit together and discuss the issues, perhaps they could come to the bottom of things.