Jane Hambleton is referring to herself as 'the meanest mom on the plant'. She found alcohol in her son's car and decided to sell it by placing this ad:
"OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
"Meanest Mom on the Planet'
Posted by Anonymous at 10:53 AM
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So, I could have bought that one for my wife and saved a few hundred dollars?! Man, I always miss the good deals.
Seriously though, I hope he learns his lesson and I applaud this parent in standing behind her word. If only more parents would be firm with their children we wouldn't have problems like this one.
j razz
Jrazz,
I don't like sarcasm, so this mom's ad kind of bugs me. I don't think selling her son's car was unreasonable, but I think the way she handled it is inappropraite.
After working with parents of teenagers who often don't very little, (if anything at all) to address issues such as these, this is a breath of fresh air! I'm sure the teenager found it very annoying--but perhaps annoying enough to think twice next time.
She was on Good Morning America this Morning, but I had to leave before they interviewed her. I would have like to hear what she said.
I think if her attitude was a little different I would apporve more of her actions. Obviously we don't know enough details about the situation. The son's behavior could be out of control and he may have needed this. I just think we have to be careful not expose one another's sins.
I saw her on GMA and I didn't think she purposely meant to belittle her son in public...she said as much in her interview. The son did not seem resentful at all, and I applaud the mother for following through and doing something about his behavior instead of looking the other way. It may have backfired on her a bit as she did not mean for it to be so public. Her purpose in being sarcastic in the ad was SIMPLY to sell the car, not to humiliate her son in public, as she said on GMA this morning.
I didn't have a problem with her actions. I think her son definitely learned his lesson. Perhaps she should have thought about her actions becoming more public than she meant for them to, but....I still found it more amusing than irritating as some seem to have done.
I've seen this happen before with video games systems on ebay. I think it's a wonderful idea.
One of the youth in my youth group was caught drinking in the fall of last year and her dad sold her prized green VW Bug that she'd wanted so badly. To me it was fitting punishment for a girl who'd been sneak binge drinking for a year before anyone caught her. So, I reckon I don't have much sympathy for the child who was caught.
Oops, I must have accidentally deleted my earlier comment...
I don't think sarcasm was needed to sell the car, though. Either someone is in the market for that car, for that price, or they aren't. And although she says it was not her purpose to humiliate her son, she had to know it would. Then she kept the add running, even after the car sold, because of the publicity. What was her point in that?
I would have sold the car, too, don't get me wrong. My kid would be taking the bus! However, I think tough love should be paired with grace. I don't think putting it in the paper for the world to see shows much grace.
We're not talking about embarrassing a 7-year-old kid here. There are worse things in the world than a little public humiliation, especially for a 19-year-old who got caught with alcohol in his car. A DUI would have been a heckuva lot more humiliating.
I think what this woman did was fantastic. Good for her.
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