Be Responsible

I chose this topic for my Monday morning blog because of my oldest nephew who needs to somehow "find himself".

"Tay" needs to keep himself free and out of trouble for as long as he can...til infinity for that matter. In September,he got caught up with some older dudes and this girl and ended up being arrested for an attempted armed robbery that went bad. When I say bad, I mean the older ones pushed him up to go try to rob some dude who happen to be a big time drug dealer 90 MILES AWAY FROM COLUMBIA and then the dude was able to grab the gun from him and hold him up.

(I'm going to wait on you to digest this bit of info).

Continuing...
Tay was 17 at the time of the robbery-gone-bad scenario, which here in South Carolina you are considered a adult. Period. End of discussion. The other three (from what I am told) were in their mid 20's. One other girl was arrested, but he other two got away (those two never got out of the car). So now, these two are awaiting trial for this bullcrap, which could take forever to get on the docket.

Bond was set at $1000. You know me, I was like let his ass stay there. Tay was grown enough to leave home at 6am having this mom thinking he was going to school early (???) when in fact he was two counties away. Then on top of that, he didn't call his mama first to let her know where he was. Nah, he calls is then 15 year old sister on her cell phone at school. All the kids at school knew before his mama knew.

(Giving you 30 seconds to digest that info).

But you know mom wants her son at home so what does she do? Scraps up the first $500 to give to the bail bondsman so her son can be home. This was in September. He had spent three weeks and three days in jail from that time. Since then, Tay has had to appear for roll call three times for a 5 minute (or less) appearance which I had to drive them there, take off time from my then permanent job to go 90 MILES AWAY from Columbia for some bullcrap that he should have never been in.

So my thing is, since you ain't locked up yet. You got to do something. Get on the bandwagon. Try to prove to these people that this was something that you weren't trying to get into in the first place, but you are correcting your actions because you don't want to repeat the offense.

Tay turned 18 in November, which meant that he could try out for his driving permit on his own without being on anyone's insurance policy. He successfully got that after two tries.

He then applied for jobs and ended up getting a job at Honey Baked Ham. Sounds like the road is paving away smoothly.

The rocky part of the road: Today, Tay's boss calls him and ask him to come in a little later this morning. Ok fine. So he ask me what time to I have to go to work. I tell him I work this evening but I don't get off til midnight. He sighs. Now he's like he don't think he's going to work today because he doesn't have any bus fare to get back home and nobody to pick him up.

I'm already heated with that line cause first of all, you can get a ride anyplace else you want to, the teen club, the mall, whatever but you not going to work cause you can't find a ride?

I told Tay that his on him, but he need not be asking anybody for any money for anything because he could have been doing what he supposed to be doing.

But 20 minutes later Tay is on the phone with one of his homeboy's and is about to leave the house.

His brother told him he was on that bs cause if he had that job, he would work all the hours he could. He'll find a ride back home somehow. That's what I'm talking about.

It's all about responsiblity. Mama, auntie, or whoever can't hold children's hands when they get grown. They need not to. Let their asses go!!! Most of us who are able to work are doing it because we got to. If I didn't have to pay bills I wouldn't bother getting up to go to anybody's office, retail store, or anything for that matter.

I have my own place, so what's goes on here with Tay at this house, let his mama deal with it if she so please.

Maybe it is just my frustration for today, but when you are 18, you need to be making most of these grown decisions for yourself, not waiting on somebody hand and foot.

Ok, I am finished ranting for the morning.