8 YEAR OLD BOYS CAUGHT ATTEMPTING TO START FIRE IN EAST MAITLAND
Two child firebugs, both eight, caught in Newcastle
Eight-year-old boys caught trying to light a bushfire
We haven’t had a Bad Parent Sighting for a while. I also like to call them the alliterative term “Piss Poor Parenting”. This one was seen in the newspaper and on the news, making excuses to try to absolve himself of parental duty.
For the last couple of weeks, New South Wales has been burning. We have had severe bushfires, brought on by hot, windy and dry conditions. Some of these fires were started by natural causes such as dry lightning. Others by accident, such as hot exhaust pipes on dry grass or electricity wires arcing in strong winds. However, a few of these fires were deliberately lit.
The case I want to bring to your attention happened recently. Two 8 year old boys were caught near East Maitland in the Hunter Valley, trying to light a fire around 7.30pm. They had piled up dry grass and dead leaves and were trying to light the heap with a cigarette lighter. It was only by sheer luck that the lighter didn’t work.
Police could not press charges due to the boys’ age (age of criminal responsibility in Australia is 10 years) and released them into the care of their parents (who were obviously not caring for them as they were wandering the bush at 7.30pm at night). When interviewed by news sources, the father of one of the boys had the hide to say this:
“I have 6 kids, I can’t be following all of them around the streets all the time. It’s not my responsibility, mate.”
What the fuck. They’re YOUR children! You chose to not wear a condom or get a vasectomy and beget 6 children. You have to live with that choice. What your child did was almost attempted murder. You should be begging for forgiveness and disciplining your child.
6 kids and unwilling to care for them. Old Mate needs to stand up once in a while. Same with his missus. Get a new hobby. And no, getting drunk down at your local pub while your unsupervised litter run rampant doesn’t count as a constructive way to pass one’s time. Some suggested hobbies would be getting a job in a nuclear reactor, keeping your phone in your underwear, getting kicked in the balls, wearing tight underwear, getting cardiovascular disease or diabetes etc. See where I’m going with this?
Mother dearest of the other boy involved said that her boy will be “grounded for a week”. Yeah, that’ll show him! NOT! “Grounded” = more likely playing Xbox while Mother also goes down to the pub and drinks away her welfare check. At least she took some responsibility for him unlike the aforementioned useless Old Mate. But this lack of proper discipline and consequences is probably what led to this kid thinking he could do whatever he liked, with no consequences to his actions whatsoever.
The police involved with the case, being mandated reporters, have reported both kids to be “at risk” to DoCS (Social Services). They were unsupervised and getting into a potentially very dangerous situation because their parents couldn’t be bothered to keep an eye on them. This is a small victory for the people of Maitland, who could have lost everything because of two very silly little boys and their inept breeders. Once you get the attention of DoCS (whether you really are abusing your kids or not), it’s very hard to get them out of your life. Social services will be investigating these useless people very thoroughly.
Sorry for the long ramble, but we have had fires close to us and it was very scary. To think that people could have lost their homes and livelihoods because of poor breeding just makes my blood boil.
Discussion point: Should parents be held responsible for their children’s criminal actions, if the child is under the age of criminal responsibility? Perhaps some fines to diminish the breeders’ pub money might straighten them out.
