Mayor Mike is NOW giving out parenting advice

When I first saw Mike’s press conference I just laughed and said, typical Mike, armchair expert on everything. Than I started getting texts and emails from friends who are ‘Parents’ questioning his intentions.

I will say this, after watching the spectacle, I really think Mike was sincere, I also think he was spot on with a lot of his advice. Parents need to know where their kids are. Kids need to follow curfew and listen to what their parents tell them. All golly gee, gosh darn it, good advice.

But some in the media were not buying it.

Todd Epp from KELO AM asked if this advice would do much good for parents who are meth heads?

On a similar note, would this advice do much good for parents who have 2-3 jobs?

There is also a little hypocrisy with this message of good parenting coming from Mike. This is a mayor that was opposed to free youth bus rides & swimming. He also tried to cut YMCA after school program funding in next year’s budget (the council restored it). All programs that help keep latch key kids out of trouble when their parents are working.

And it really comes down to that. A lot of kids in our community are living in poverty. Ironically the mayor and the city council have the power to change that. They could require new employers coming to SF to pay living wages. They could implement a city minimum wage of $10-11 an hour. They could implement a city wide job training program. And lastly the health department clinic could supply FREE birth control to women (not just condoms) and make LSS aware of the program.

The mayor can blame ‘bad parents’ until the cows come home, but some of these parents aren’t bad, they just are too busy working to pay much attention to their kids.

As I have said in the past, we don’t have an affordable housing or food supply problem in Sioux Falls, we have a wage problem. Poverty breeds crime that trickles down to the kids.