What's best for the kidnapped kid who was found in Ohio yesterday?

Kid is an adult. No one gets to decide for him.

The best thing for him? A good therapist and a re-introduction with his mother. After that. it is up to him.

Here’s a decent link to the story that promises updates.

They might have held off on prosecuting his father until after he got into college… nothing like making a hard thing worse.

I agree with what @zenvelo wrote. Therapy, meeting with the mom and then the kid making some decisions and working through it.

I don’t know. He’s an adult, he can decide for himself what’s best for him.

Dad should be sent to prison.
How wrong. She missed out on everything.
Ohio, huhn?
What a state.
The same place where they wouldn’t approve legalized RX weed.
Not because it might stunt the growth of the little hooligans who roam in packs, stealing ill people’s grass. No.
They just don’t like who got the farming money and rights to grow.
So those here for whom it would really help, are screwed.
Ohio.
I’m sorry, I digress.
Yow.
Yep, prison with no windows nor cable for the Daddy.

I’m going to elaborate on my answer.

We know literally nothing about this situation.

The kid was college bound and healthy. Now his only present parent is in jail, his entire life has been turned upside down, and some strange woman from Arkansas is claiming to be his mother.

And he’ll have nearly no help to cope with this situation, because he is 18. And everyone knows when you turn 18 you are magically granted the ability to fend for yourself with no notice.

If he was a good father and the kid was OK with it, leave the man alone and let the boy decide to communicate with the mother he wishes to.

I agree with @cazzie and @Seek, although I hope someone presents him with the option to go to therapy. He isn’t through high school yet, and so his grade matters more than his age in my opinion. I was 16 when I was a senior, but I was still a senior. My exboyfriend was 19 when he graduated, but he was still a senior in high school. When you’re a kid you are more your grade than your age.

Edit: I wonder why he took the kid? Did he feel the mother was abusive? Or, he just didn’t want to share him with her? What a complete horror for the mom. I just can’t imagine it.

more info.

The article says he has had contact with his mom during the time he has been missing. Did I read that right? It also says that because he is 18 he can choose to stay with his step mom or go back to his mom. I’m glad the law can’t decide for him.

I think putting the guy in jail is pretty harsh.

@cazzie Assuming the mother was not abusive, you don’t find it horrific that he kidnapped the child? We obviously need more details regarding this story to draw any conclusions, but if my husband kept my kid from me I think I would want him brought up on some sort of charges. I don’t know how I would feel about jail, but I would feel as though he had tortured me.

The dad needs to be punished to discourage other people from doing the same thing.

@JLeslie I didnt say it wasnt a horrible thing to do. My immediate thought is that the woman was a nutcase and the father probably thought he was rescuing the boy. The father wasnt abusive or seeming to do it out of spite.

@cazzie It’s possible. It would be interesting to hear the father’s side.

There are three sides to every story. The two sides and the truth. It would be interesting to know the truth. I suspect that as the father’s criminal case unfolds, research will be done on prior domestic violence in the home, social services provided including CPS reports, and police visits to the address, if any.

Well put, @jca.

More and more, sensational stories flare up and then die in the media. Try following up on this story in 2 months as the current media is all you’ll find.
It’s like we’re being trained to not really give a shit.

I think the kid should decide how to proceed unless he was a victim of abuse. He has been a victim all these years and is the one to suffer if the only parent he has ever known is put in jail. If his father has been a good dad all these years then I don’t see how sending his dad to jail will help him or anyone. It will send a message to others who would be parent kidnappers but those who are convinced that they are doing it for the right reasons will still do it.

@jca “The dad needs to be punished to discourage other people from doing the same thing.”

I disagree, as it would not be any kind of discouragement to anyone. Someone who kidnaps their child just to spite the other parent isn’t going to give a shit. And someone who truly believes they’re rescuing their child is going to take that chance regardless of what the law and courts say.

Apparently there is a step mother, so hopefully the kid still has resources, @Seek. And he’s been in contact with his birth mother.

For the record, @cazzie, the charges against the father stem from the father lying to get a driver’s license in 2012. Here’s a case in Ohio where a tampering charge was satisfied by attending a ‘diversion program’, even though the guy had stolen $12,000.

The article specifically states that there will be no federal charges brought, so it’s unlikely there will be a felony charge.

Looks to me like the local cops put him in jail until things got sorted out. Whether there was abuse, etc.