Where was she then?

Natalee Holloway has been all over the news for the last two months. She is the teenager that disappeared in Aruba a couple of months ago and it seems that every cable news channel has nothing better to report on than her disappearance and every detail contained in the story. I usually don't comment on big news, but something is particularly disturbing me in this whole saga.

The mother. It is amazing how much of a strong hero figure her mother has turned into. I rarely watch the news about it, but whenever I see her or hear about her she is always fighting for truth and not accepting anything except the truth. Whatever. I have a question for her.

Where was she before now? I think that she is getting off way too easy. Where was she when her daughter was learning to drink alcohol? Where was she when her daughter was learning to take drugs? Why did she let her daughter go on this trip? A trip to a foreign country with no chaperon or adult figure. Just four teenage girls.

She was absent. She seemed to not be involved in her daughters life or care about her actions. Now I admit that there are many things that teenagers can do without their parents having any idea, but I think that the parents do have a lot of say in their children's lives. The last question is the biggest one for me, because this is one that the mom had complete control over. She could have said that her daughter couldn't go on the trip. She could have said that she would go or make sure another parent was going. But she didn't.

I work with the youth at my church and I have seen many of them do stupid things because their parents don't care. Their parents are absent. They may live with them, but never bother doing anything to control them or punish them or even talk to them. The teens with their parents involved in their lives are much better off. They feel the love even though it restricts them sometimes. Teens need that restriction, we all do. We are apt to make many stupid mistakes without loving people in our lives telling us not to.

So Natalee's mother plays a big part in the fault of this and will never accept. Did something horrible most likely happen in Aruba that some monster of a human did? Yes. Should whoever did this be punished for it? Yes. Should the girl have ever been in the places she was for something horrible to happen to her. No. Who was a big part of that fault? Her mother.