I have blogged many times on parents neglecting their duties. It has become all too common for parents to buy and serve their adolescents alcohol. It also has become common for them to go on stealing sprees with their kids as well.

On incident I read about recently involved a “nice” family day of shopping with a 66-year-old granny, her 46-year-old daughter and the two grandchildren aged 10 and 16, respectively. This as reported in patch.com.

The matriarch of this proud American family, Ethel L. McLaurin was arrested and charged with shoplifting (second offense), assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon.

The incident occurred at Marshall’s where McLaurin went around with a 10-year-old and 16-year-old girl putting merchandise into McLaurin's handbag. The 10-year-old was also seen putting items into her bag.

An employee confronted McLaurin and her companions outside and asked them to come back inside the store with her, but they refused. At that point, McLaurin allegedly struck an employee with the door of her Ford Explorer and then almost hit the employee with the vehicle when she backed out of her parking space.

Officers later tracked McLaurin down at her home, where they arrested her. What are these people thinking?

It used to be grandparents took the kids to the park to play or played a board game. If this was an isolated incident I could write it off as comical, but this is happening far too often. I again ask that we mandate stop theft classes for all of our youth in an effort to restore common decency in our society.