'Not giving up on my son': Father of 9-year-old stowaway speaks out

[karynnj]

56. I suspect that jail is many times more likely than becoming President

That he is smart goes without saying, but he is totally unable to follow any societal norms.

The child already is ruining the more prosaic lives of his mother and father and likely his sibling. They are the ones who people are questioning as having done a poor job parenting him. That is clearly true, but it is also true that there are kids MUCH harder to raise than others - and he is one.

The sad thing is that from the dad's ACTIONS, in contrast to his words, he has given up. No responsible parent just assumes that their kid - missing at night - was probably at a friend's house. There is no story of him desperately calling every friend he had looking for him.

It sounds like you are closer to the kid's age than parent's, but think back. Did you, a sibling or a friend ever stay out all night with no permission from parents as a preteen? I remember as a kid - that we were told that we had to call to let them know even if we were just stopping off with friends on the way home from school.

As to other things - stealing cars and driving them etc - that is not smart, just incredibly bad. He clearly does not have a normal sense of right and wrong. I feel sorry for the parents who clearly have a child who may be beyond their ability to care for - no matter how much they love him.