It's parents' job to rein in children

I just finished reading Richard Cohen's Sept. 10 editorial on "broken glass." Though he was aptly applying it to our foreign policy (as well it should be) it also applies to many aspects of life, right down to raising children. If we don't respond to the first sounds of tinkling glass, we far too often live to regret it.

If children are not expected to behave (the tinkling of glass) when they are young and bad behavior is ignored then, why are we surprised that they wind up in trouble when they're teenagers? Part of growing up is constantly testing the waters, and if parents don't do their job of reining them in at the beginning of the "testing" period, how do they learn they are expected to behave and that there will be consequences if they don't.

The same parents who do nothing are upset when the police have to do what they should have been doing in the beginning. It is only normal for children to spread their wings in order to grow, but sometimes (often) it is the parent's job to "clip" those wings for the child's own safety and well-being. After all, we are not raising them to only be happy children but also to be capable and responsible adults.

Janet Lumm

Schaumburg