Kid truants-Mother jailed

So your child is playing truant and you're crying in despair,
you don't know how to cope with it you're pulling out your hair.
Every day you wake him up he tells you to "Eff off"
"I'll go to Jail" You tell him, but all he does is scoff.

"So what?" He sneers and turns his back "They're punishing YOU not me".

You go downstairs sit on the couch and you weep openly.
It's true it's YOU that suffers, so to him it's no deterrent.
But I myself am outraged! Where's the OTHER Parent?

I'm sure there's such thing as FATHERS, so where do they come in?
Why don't they go down as well? How come they always win?
"I go to work" The Father bleats; Oh really and Mums don't then?
OK some mums don't work, but neither do some MEN!

And what if it's a single Father? The Mother could be dead!
Or seriously ill, will they go to her and sentence her on her death-bed?
It takes two to make a baby,and two to mould that child.
So why is it that the Mothers blamed if the kid is growing wild?
Do they still jail the mother, if SHE'S the one not there?
If so then absent fathers, should be punished, Well That's FAIR.

God it makes me crazy and I know speak for those,
who agree if a mum goes down, so too the father goes.
"But what of the child?" Goody two shoes asks and that too makes me shout.
Send 'em to a children's home 'til both parents get out.

When they've lost their home comforts and they're lying in strange beds,
they can think about just what they've done and grow sense in their heads.

I know some kids are bullied, other kids can be so cruel,
so get the help that's available, or get them in another school.
But most kids skive for fun, think education's crap!
"And never mind if I play truant it's Mum that takes the rap".

Yes MUM, not DAD, who goes to jail. This Government's a joke!
and now I come to end my poem...a jailed Mother has spoke.

Learn more about this author, Dawn Grierson.
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