Salmo this is one of the best posts I've read on this board.....ever! Another HUGE problem is that the loving, caring GRANDPARENTS of these kids get dragged back into child rearing duty at the time in their lives when they deserve to relax and go fishing whenever they want! My own father in law got stuck with this....his loser son's girlfriend dropped off their 2-year old "for a visit" one fine day....well, that friggin' visit has lasted 15 years. We lost my mother-in-law 5 years ago........can you imagine being essentially a "single father" at age 82? Uncle Mingo handles fishing duty (she took her first smallie, a nice 3 pounder, under my tutelage recently ) and yard maintenance and my wife is more or less a surrogate mother....like many of you have said, the kids deserve better but this society has got to STOP REWARDING IRRESPONSIBILITY! All day long people flap their gums about "my rights, my rights"..............but they never ever flap their gums about "my responsibilities"....NO, they'd rather play now and let the rest of us pick up the tab.

Nicely stated Salmo.......you too, AuntyM!