Reflections

Thinking back to yesterday, I’m extremely proud of the boy for keeping his cool, managing to impress the judge in a rapidly deteriorating situation. Then again, it’s what he does best, unlike moi. Not one of my best qualities. In fact, I have very few redeeming qualities, and I think it’s good that I can step back objectively and see that! Either that or tomorrow morning I’ll come back and delete this paragraph….

As he calmly explained, we used to live on Rata St, and he had pulled out of the drive and driven away a hundred times before- why would he lose control on this one, dry, night? And why did they only take statements from the other side, and not him? And why on earth did they send him home? Dodginess.

Which….brings me to my next point! I have very little faith in our police force left. I base this on his experiences with the police, which my default are mine also. I did also have a brief brush with them when I left home (a rather upsetting episode, which is thankfully long gone), and was rather unimpressed with one of the cops that day. But then again, it’s understandable, how many teenagers in a snit has he had to deal with? If only he knew this time was different. I’m just grateful I got out that day.

Although I feel that on the whole our police have terrible attitudes, it’s not really that surprising. Cops who ask if you have a licence, and are surprise that you do (or that it’s not suspended/revoked). If you have a job. I guess the majority of people they deal with fail on those counts more often than not, so no surprise that they get jaded, really.

And I’m amazed at how the people who work in the courts can stand it. The lowlifes that pass through there! No respect for themselves, let alone others. One idiot (would describe him, but can’t really, had to be there sorta thing) came out after being sentenced. The clerk(?) lady asked if he had any other outstanding fines, and how much? Seven….and a half…GRAND, none of which he was paying. She gave him the slip with his new fine amount on it. He walked off wordless, screwing the paper up in a little ball as he went, then tossed it away.

I wanted to kick him in the nuts.

People like that, jesus, are a waste of space.

Back to my topic. The time the boy stood up for one of my friends after my high school talent quest (where we won second place (??) bitch, that’s right!) , and ended up arguing with a cop and getting arrested. The charge was obstruction, along with two or three other made up charges – something like rioting or starting a riot or inciting a crowd. See, how do they come up with this? There’s being inflexible but doing your job within the guidelines. That’s understandable. Fabricating charges is another ballgame. Using your power for kicks isn’t cool. Maybe you want to assert power over a big stocky Westie who is larger and probably stronger (although rather unfit) than you. I don’t know, whatever. I’m with Rage Against the Machine on this one….

But once they found out he was Army, they pulled all the extra charges, thankfully, and rightly so. It’s amazing just how much discretion they have. I could understand the judge having full discretion, but these were just run of the mill officers.

So he finished his community service, and all was well; diversion meant that was the end of the matter. Until he was pulled over months later and told there was a warrant for his arrest for failing to appear in court. Yeah, that’s right. The Sallies, or someone along the line, failed to report him as having completed his hours and he was down as needing to come back to court for not completing the requirements. The same thing also happened one night as I walked home from work and he and his friends were in the carpark by our apartment block. Cops were cruising around, same story, warrant still out. I had jsut had a very long day and was none too impressed, and protested. How could he have shown in court if there was no notice given that he needed to go? And why, oh why was this bloody thing dragging out nearly a year later!

So off to court we trundled, me with my notes cramming for my exams, and the judge apologised, and sent us home. Took all of two minutes. They confirmed there had been a mixup and it wasn’t his fault. All this faffing around, him having to take time off work, UNPAID to attend court, and of course, it’s NZ, so no compensation.

And of course, this whole drama of “careless driving”, reached on the word of one party only – despite the fact the cops had every chance to do that one right.

Yeah, I don’t appreciate their bungles, especially after this last one.

After all our time they’ve wasted and stress caused, is it any wonder I don’t think super highly of them? I hope one day they can restore my faith in them. But until then…

Getting tough on truancy

Who else thinks the Nats’ plan to fine parents up to $3000 if their kids wag school is preposterous?

I hope that like the current law it’s one of those things that goes ignored – apparently it’s $1500 max at the moment, but who ever enforces that?

$3000 is ridiculous. It’s excessive, it would put a dent in basically anyone’s budget, and odds are the families of repetitive truants aren’t well off. They can’t, and won’t pay $3000. If you’re living week to week, aren’t saving for retirement, struggle when your car needs registering every six months, or breaks down, you’re not going to have a spare $3000 sitting around to part with. Blood from a stone, and all that.

While I totally believe in strong parenting – it’s your choice to have kids, you and you alone need to look after them, if you can’t provide the necessities of life, you shouldn’t have had them – and instilling good values and work ethic, the fact is your children are not you. You can’t control them. You can try. You can do your best by your kids, but sometimes life doesn’t work out the way you want. There are limits to what you are responsible for. If your 16 yo stole a car, went for a joyride and totalled it, injuring or killing someone else in the process, would you be held responsible for reparations?

Frankly I think there are worse things than skipping school and certainly more important social issues for our govt to focus on. The economy. Serious crime. You know the kind of thing I mean.

Some kids are just out of control, and fining their parents is completely unjust, unwarranted and will achieve nothing. I don’t know what those kids need. Discipline, obviously. Maybe boot camp is appropriate there. But you can’t hold parents reponsible for absolutely everything. Some people can be reached, and they can be redeemed. Others fall through the cracks and some are too far gone to help.

Hurrah for work benefits!

I’m ecstatic!

Got a cheque today for $390 for my glasses from work. They cost me 474, which means they were virtualy free…..relatively! They cost me less than $100 out of pocket, which is basically free.
Not sure why they cut me a cheque rather than just direct depositing it…it’s not like they don’t have my details.

I still can’t quite believe I got reimbursed at all….let alone to such a large percentage (I’m sure I read there was a $150 limit somewhere…

So I’m gonna use $100 to pay our water bill, $30 for my Christmas present (finally decided to splash out and get me that awesome makeupcase….$30 from almost $200. I waited a bit long, there was a pink version for $20 earlier, but whatever). Then the rest goes into savings, as it’s looking pretty low. After the almost $500 I paid for my glasses, plus $350 for the boy’s present, and the $400 I lent him for clutch repairs, and I haven’t been paid yet for my four freelance articles…….

As if I needed a reason to love my company right now..
And this is why I want to be in a job with great benefits. As my mum says it’s better to start out in a large business, get contacts, get experience, get benefits, progress up the ladder, then later on move to a smaller more intimate place where you can really shine with your invaluable experience in a smaller team.

If teh boy ends up officially resigning from his non-job he’ll lose his free health insurance, so I will probably go see the Southern Cross rep at work (she comes in once a month) and see about getting coverage through work. If it’s reasonable then I would probably go with that. (But first, gotta sort contents insurance, which I’ll probably do after the new year now.) If it’s cheap, say a few bucks a week (I have NO IDEA how much basic coverage might cost, so talking out my arse here) I’d jump on it. Not so much for me, but the boy, who’s much more prone to injury at work, has a bad back and may need dental work soon. It’s a great thing to have if possible, as big medical bills aren’t something we can afford right now.