Runaway KY teens found in FL he is 18 she is only 13! What is the world coming to?

Two teens from Kentucky ran away on a crime spree and were caught in Florida. What is really scary is the girl is only 13 and her boyfriend is 18. He was facing burglary charges before they even left. Now, who knows what he will charged with. But how can a parent not know where and whom their 13 yr old hangs out with? The story was on BBC and CNN if you want to read about it. Our oldest son will be 18 in a few months, and I can't see him wanting to "date" a 13 yr old girl! Has the whole world gone crazy?

Yes.

I see this all the time on cable with heartbreaking stories that parents have to live with. Most of the time these kids get online at night and cook up these schemes. Restaurants fail because of bad management, marriages fail because of bad relationships, and parents lose their children's respect and lives because of bad parenting.

I agree with Rick. Yes!

Teenagers acting like teenagers. Ohiomom, I understand your frustration, but...

"Our oldest son will be 18 in a few months, and I can't see him wanting to "date" a 13 yr old girl! Has the whole world gone crazy?"

Not to defend this kid's behavior, but you're looking at the situation from an adult perspective. And while 18-year-olds are technically/legally "adults", they're still kids. I was 20 years old and fell in love with a 13-year-old girl from my church. No sex happened, but she and I were in love with each other. You can't stop love. But, due to the age difference, it just wasn't going to work (especially with official disapproval), and we parted amicably, both knowing what could have been. I ran into her a few times when she was over 18, and we still hit it off, but, yeah, nothing more was happening. Now I'm almost 50, and she's in her early 40s, and I would love to bump into her again. Maybe it would finally work. At this age, 7 years difference isn't that big of a deal.

But 18 and 13? I can totally see that happening. Being a dumbass 18-year-old boy, and having a somewhat younger girl with boobies ... (yes, 18-year-old boys are ruled by boobies), I can totally understand any following lack of judgment.

What is the world "coming to?" Its always been like this.

Hey, I'll have you know that some of us guys (I'm guessing particularly among spankophiles) were "ruled by bottoms" during our extremely youthful years--and still are, even as highly 'matured' adults. Okay, I've always appreciated a lady's 'mammary assets' as well.

When I was an 18-year-old college student, there was a 13-year-old girl back in my home town who was quite pretty and well-developed, so perhaps she could've passed for sixteen, who had a strong 'crush' on me. Nothing came of it, but part of the reason for that was simply because I only saw her briefly on breaks from school. If I'd still been living in my home town, I certainly would have felt tempted to explore a romantic relationship with her, even though the logical part of my mind would've been ringing the alarm bells.

However, we undoubtedly wouldn't ever have gone on a 'crime spree,' although I could've ended up eventually doing so in one sense--no matter how old she looked, the girl was what we guys called "jail bait." Probably I wouldn't ever have managed the nerve to defy social convention by dating an early-teenage girl, but in retrospect I'm glad that I didn't have to find out.

An 18-year-old male often will receive the kind of admiration and even adoration from a female 3+ years younger than him which he's unlikely to get from a young woman his own age--that can be compellingly appealing to a shy, romantically insecure male.

Now, back to Library business: Who's going to write a spanking-oriented story based on this news account...?? --C.K.

I saw pictures of the girl, and if I had been 18 and she lied about her age, I probably wouldn't have demanded to see her birth certificate. Teens are likely to push a bit past the limits set for them. If those two had had stricter limits set and enforced, they likely would not be in the trouble they are in now. Sad, but when they were on the run, I heard them described on the news as a "teen Bonnie and Clyde." I'm glad it didn't end that bad for them.

Back in 1958, Charles Starkweather famously went on a killing spree with his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate through Nebraska and Wyoming, having first killed Caril's mother and stepfather. (This case was the inspiration for Terrence Malick's film Badlands.) He was 19, and she was 14.

Things don't change that much.

I have to say I am a little wiser after reading the comments. Rick, I agree love can happen at anytime. My husband met me straight out of high school and he was almost out of college. So I know it can happen. I guess I was mainly upset because I have nieces around this age and I can't imagine any of my family members not stepping in if something like this was occurring. Also, I guess I am naive about other parents. We have an open door policy with our teens and they have been open about everything. So I guess I should be thankful our teens seem to be pretty good kids. Although there was the toilet paper incident. I agree with CK, someone should write a story!

Starkweather (a young Martin Sheen in the movie), finally caught, was tried, convicted and sent to the electric chair in less than a year and Caril Fugate was sent to prison for decades (I think she was in her forties when she was finally paroled). We took that kind of thing more seriously in those days. That certainly seems to have changed, but I see your point.

Having said that, the very first thing that I thought of when I heard the girl was only thirteen was, "wow, someone's gonna get a hell of a spanking when she gets home!" I can definitely see a story based on this incident...