Need a lift to the bar? Just ask your kids.

by Roger Sinasohn (Subscribe to Roger Sinasohn's posts) Aug 16th 2008 5:00PM

Categories: Teens & Tweens, Behaving Badly, Alcohol & Drugs

Returning home from my company picnic yesterday, with my two thirteen-year-old nieces with me, I jokingly asked if either of them had their driver's license so that they could drive at least some of the way home and I could take a nap. (Neither one did, of course, and, really, I was just kidding.) In Texas, though, that's not something they kid about.

Police officers in the East Texas town of Longview noticed a minivan turn into a driveway and bump into the house.

Investigating, they found a twelve-year-old girl behind the wheel. She told the officers that she had just driven her mother to a bar. Upon checking at the pub, they indeed found thirty-five-year-old Jennifer Lynn Rosenberg who admitted to having her daughter drive her there.

On the one hand, you have to give Rosenberg credit for not wanting to risk drinking and driving, but on the other hand... Perhaps it would be best if she just stayed away from the bars altogether. In the meantime, Child Protective Services is looking into the situation.

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Comments (47)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

tiggerr105 8-16-2008 @ 10:12PM

Yay Im the first comment

RK 8-17-2008 @ 11:29AM

And CYS will take your kids for disciplining them, but not for being a bad example. Go figure.

Sparkles 8-18-2008 @ 9:21PM

CYS has never taken anyone's children for disciplining them. Unless of course, your idea of "discipline" involves violence and abuse.

RK 8-19-2008 @ 5:43PM

I'm just saying, CYS in this country is broken. I know plenty of cases where good parents had their kids taken and crappy ones kept them. I remember growing up and watching countless drug raids at the house on the corner and it took CYS 15 years to figure out that it probably wasn't the best environment for the 9 kids that lived there which consequently lead you to paying for 7 more people admitted to the system. The last 2 are unknown yet, but you see my point. And CYS threatened to take my kids just because I was about to deploy for 6 months to the mid-east. And the reason they gave me was it would cause "an unstable home environment" A quick call to the VA took care of that and besides, my wife did wonderful. Another case I have seen, An autistic girl was being abused, was always dirty, and was not being sent to school stayed with her family for about 5 years until she was sent to foster care. My wife does social work. I can go on about how broken CYS is for the next decade.

DENISE MABE 8-18-2008 @ 8:28PM

I THINK THEY SHOULD LOCK.THIS MOTHER UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY.HOW STUPID CAN ANYONE BE.SHE COULD HAD GOT HER A CAB TO TAKE HER REALLY.HER DAUGHTER COULD HAD BEEN KILLED REALLY.I WOULDN'T EVEN HAVE A TRIAL FOR THIS STUPID LADY.I LIVE IN N.C. I WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING SO STUPID.SOME PEOPLE ARE REALLY STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

matt 8-19-2008 @ 1:15AM

yeah i agree with you but for her it would have cut into her drinking money

JohnBoydStrother 8-19-2008 @ 1:26AM

Since when wouldn't a girl this age, it such a rurual area, not be able to drive a car or mini van? How people forget, that in these areas of farm work, you learn young to handle equipment. A mini van sure is easier to drive than most of the farm tractors. Sure, if this was going on in a fair sized town, it be one thing. However it is so rural, this girl will be marrying a a few short years.
Give the girl credit, she had the police behind her, she was a little panickly, but true the mom is a bar fly. That is truely a sad story.

kbutterfly1224 8-19-2008 @ 3:26AM

JohnBoyd..... Longview is not rural. Hate to break it to you, but it is not a farm town. I used to work at one of the many bars in Longview.... probably that same one the girl dropped her mother off at. For the record a 2006 estimate placed the city's population at 76,524. Granted it's not Dallas or Austin, but there are no tractor's driving down the road there. Not every smaller city in Texas is filled with farmer's on overall's drinking coffee and chewing the fat at the local feed store. Longview is not a safe place for a 12 year old to be left alone, let alone be driving in!

ccwstauffer 8-18-2008 @ 8:31PM

Why isn't the mother being charge with endangering a child? I just at times cannot believe the stupidly of some parents.

SP123311 8-18-2008 @ 8:39PM

I'm sure this isn't the first time someone has done this. Drunk Jenny just got caught this time.

T 8-18-2008 @ 8:39PM

Darn I wish I would have thought about having my kids drive me

heidi 8-18-2008 @ 8:56PM

i hope they lock the mom up for a very long time, how could anyone do that to their child. i have never heard of anything so stupid i feel sorry for the child i hope she has a safe place to go with adults that are responsible while her drunk of a mother is in jail hopefully for life

Kathy 8-18-2008 @ 9:07PM

This woman did somehting right, as her child obeyed her instructions, and the mom didn't want to risk driving drunk, so she endangered her child's life by allowing her minor child, with no permit or driver's license to drive. The young lady was honest with the police, telling them just where she was driving from, and that she did indeed drop her mom off at the bar as she specified.
Things could've gotten worse should this young girl picked her mom up from the bar drunk, and the mom wanted to drive home, causing a fatal accident, injuring or killing her daughter and herself, or predestrians in their way! Thank God, an officer of the law intervened, and just maybe this family will get the necessary help to get them on the right road. This may have been a wake up call for this family. Where is the father? What was this child doing while mom was at the bar, was she joy riding?

Sarah 8-18-2008 @ 9:23PM

Why does this story not surprise me? The reason the kid was driving was because her mother was a worthless drunk. Let me guess.... she never got married and her boyfriend dumped her when she told him she was pregnant. Maybe she's divorced and I can definitely see why. What a pathetic excuse for a parent. What if that kid ran over and killed someone? What if someone hit her? CPS should take the kid away and sterilize the parent. I swear people need to be tested to see if they can actually handle being a parent because there are too many retards having kids that end up being worse than their parents.

Michael 8-18-2008 @ 9:15PM

Hey Brad Grow up already with the nudie pics!! Get a life!

glbabynumsnana 8-18-2008 @ 9:17PM

She needs to have her kids taken from her and charges filed. What is she doing going to a bar, instead of staying home and caring for her children like she should be. That's bad enough, but to have your 12 year old daughter drive you there? She obviously cares more about going to the bar than she does her own children.

mjkaylor 8-18-2008 @ 9:20PM

Does Texas still allow hardship licenses at 15. They did when I was growing up. Of course, I also had some friends who were driveing at 13 and 14. One girl looked just like her mom so her mom let her take her license with her when she was going places.

Pamela 8-18-2008 @ 9:27PM

I just don't know what to say about this one, lord help this family. And yes Child Protective Services should take this child and any other children in the home from this mother. And where is the father? This girl could have been killed, and if you, as a mother, care more for going to a bar then you do about something happening to your child, they should just let you sit in jail for the rest of your life. Pitiful.

christine 8-18-2008 @ 9:36PM

lol...c'mon...give the girl a break! Maybe she has been driving for a while and this is a normal thing for their family - Jerry Springer style. Things could have gone terribly wrong,but they didn't. Does the mom deserve to be punished ? Yes , but not life in prison! Counseling for the family, definately! Oh, I guess I should include that I am the daughter of a drunk mother and had she thought of this - it could have been me , but I grew up to be a non drinker who still drives my mom to and from the bar :)

samantha 8-18-2008 @ 9:38PM

hey at least the mother didnt want to drive drunk.she is to blame.because she did endanger her child.but i dont think she should go to jail for it.sure it was idiotic.but people do stupid things everyday.some of them do worst things than this.

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