Mom calls 911 emergency to get teen to stop playing video game! (Commentary)

I have now officially heard it all. A woman that resides in the city of Boston has stooped to a new low. It seems like her 14-year-old teenaged son is addicted to playing video games and she has no clue about how to deal with it.

Recently while playing the infamous blood and guts shooter "Grand Theft Auto" this young man was asked (I'm assuming nicely) to turn the game off and to go to bed. He refused his mother's request and continued to obsessively play the game. He then crazily ran through the home and turned on every light in the house.

His mother, after putting up with this horrible situation for a few hours had no other choice but to call the 911 emergency line and get Boston police involved. Police soon arrived and persuaded the lad to turn off the game console and to go to sleep.

I have to ask this simple question. Why is it so difficult for a parent to control their children? When I was a kid many years ago and my mother told me to do something you better believe that I did it immediately. All my mother had to say were six simple words. "Wait until your father comes home." If I ever heard those words then I knew I had stepped over the line and that I needed to get my act together.

Of course dad never did resort to physical punishment but he commanded respect from his children and he expected certain things from them. If we didn't abide by the rules then there were consequences to pay such as having television taken away or we got grounded. Getting grounded meant no friends and we went to bed early. Whenever dad thought we had learned our lesson then the sentence was lifted.

Today it is obviously different. It's just not like it was when I was a kid growing up. My mother was a stay at home mom and my sister and I had constant supervision. We were also taught at an early age to respect our parents and our elders. Today it's not like that because most families require both parents to work. Or the family consists of only one parent. This situation allows the kids to go unsupervised. They then turn to their friends for assistance in learning how to behave. Their friends are in the same situation and the unruly juvenile delinquent behavior snowballs until the authorities get involved. Unfortunately that's the way it is these days and I don't see it changing.

I can understand this woman's dilemma and totally sympathize with her. However calling the police on the 911 line is for emergencies only. A kid refusing to stop playing a video game and refusing to go to bed is not a valid use of this emergency service. This mother should have taken the console away from the kid and she should have been forceful in her actions. I would have taken the console away from him and smashed it on the pavement outside if the kid was giving me that much trouble. Then he would have been grounded for a month.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to teach a teenager how to behave so maybe the next time his mom calls 911 the police will do more then simply persuade the lad to go to bed. Perhaps they should give him a night in the cooler and then send the bill to the parent.

The Boston Globe broke this story and you can find it on their site.