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Parenting in Hampton Roads could use a serious shot in the arm.
 While shopping in Kroger's at Wards Corner, I caught a boy of about 7 or 8 years old stealthily tearing open Lunchables boxes so he could slip the candy bars from the boxes into his jacket pocket.
He'd made his way through at least four of of the Lunchables before I sidled up to him and said quietly, "That's stealing, hon. When people buy those, everything should be in the box. You don't want to be caught stealing in this store, do you?"
He threw a surprised glance up at me and immediately ran away.
As the hubster and I neared the dairy case a few minutes later with our shopping cart, a 20-something female shopper who appeared to be of a Spanish or Hispanic descent suddenly rushed up to us with with a baby sitting in her cart.
"You spoke to my boy," she said loudly enough to make the heads of other shoppers turn. "He came to me crying and said that you were mean to him."
"No," I answered. "I wasn't mean to him, but I told him that what he was doing by taking candy bars out of the Lunchables boxes was stealing."
The boy stood close to her side, smirking.
"If you have a problem with my son, you come to ME," she retorted with a huge amount of attitude. "You don't talk to him. Do you get me on that? You do NOT talk to him. You talk to ME. And I'm here to tell you that my son does not steal."
"Okay, fine," I answered. "But the fact is, he was taking candy bars from the boxes and putting them in his pocket. I saw him do it."
"No," she emphatically shook her head. "You are very much mistaken. HE DOES NOT STEAL. He's a good boy. Mind your own business from now on, lady."
She took her son's hand and without even asking him to empty his pocket first, rushed away from us with her shopping cart.
And there you have one of the most disturbing problems we have to deal with here in Hampton Roads: Parents who refuse to accept that that their children are guilty of any wrongdoing - even when they're caught red-handed!
I have kids, you have kids.
If a stranger caught one of our children doing something like this, what would you and I do? You know what we'd do. We would THANK that stranger, demand to have those pockets emptied and then we would reprimand that child for shoplifting!
Not that mother. She made it clear that "I" was the guilty party in that situation and not her son.
I often wonder about that little boy and the life he's leading today as a result of the "he-can-do-no-wrong" parenting he's been receiving by such a misguided and ignorant mother.
I wonder what kind of bigger theft he's working up to and if he's destined for a life behind bars at the penitentiary because he was never taught important life lessons when he was just a kid out shopping with his mother.
For instance, not stealing candy bars at the grocery store!
But hey, he's got a mother who believes he can do no wrong. We all know there's a tremendous number of those right here in Hampton Roads.
And what will these foolish, blind-sided parents give us?
Yup, you guessed it: More adult criminals to deal with in the future.
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