RUSH: Now, I have intended for the past two days to talk about this teenager that sued her parents in New Jersey, and I’m gonna do it now. I promised, so here we go. “A New Jersey honor student suing her parents for…” She’s losing the suit, by the way, at least lost an early round. The judge is Peter Bogaard. She is 18. She claims she was kicked out of the house. Her parents say, “No, she left on her own.”
She says her parents were disciplining her too much, making her do homework and so forth. She didn’t want to do that, and so now she’s gone, and she is suing them for the money to continue her private education. “Family court Judge Peter Bogaard denied the emergency demand of 18-year-old Rachel Canning to have her folks pick up tuition at Morris Catholic HS, where she’s in the 12th grade and maintaining a 3.5 grade-point average.
“In a potential precedent-setting lawsuit, Rachel claims her parents, Sean and Elizabeth Canning, threw her out of their Lincoln Park home, but should still be responsible for paying school tuition, room, board, transportation and other expenses. … Sean and Elizabeth Canning said their eldest daughter refused to obey basic household rules and left on her own. Tuesday’s hearing was the first time Sean and Elizabeth Canning had seen Rachel in person since she left in late October, two days before her birthday.
“Both parents cried during the two-hour hearing in Morristown, about 30 miles west of Manhattan, as lawyers traded angry accusations. Rachel’s lawyer, Tanya Helfand, said the couple hadn’t lifted a finger to contact their daughter or make sure she’s doing OK.” The lawyer said, “‘Her relationship with her parents is abusive, in particular her relationship with her father. I’m asking the court to help this vulnerable young woman,'” by making the parents cough up the dough.
“In court papers, Rachel,” the 18-year-old who ran away from home, “said her mom has called her fat, while her dad has been ‘inappropriately affectionate with me.’ ‘He mentioned frequently that my relationship, in his eyes, was not one of a daughter, but more than that,’ Rachel contends.” (Gasp!) No! (Gasp!) Well, you know, Baby Boom parents do really want to be friends with their kids.
Some of them do. Some of them, they don’t want to be parents. They don’t want to be disciplinarians. They don’t want to raise them, they want to be friends with them, and this father may be one of those kinds of guys. But now, when go into court, you can throw any allegation around you want, all you have to say is that her father was “inappropriately affectionate” and you know as well as I do that the feminazis and every other social group is gonna be on that like white on rice.
Which is what I’m sure the lawyer intended. She didn’t say. “She stopped short of saying he never touched her unlawfully. Her parents’ lawyer, Laurie Rush-Masuret, denied all of Rachel’s claims. The Cannings introduced documents from the state’s Division of Child Protection, showing the parents had been investigated for — and cleared of — abuse allegations. And the bottom line, Rush-Masuret said, is that Rachel left on her own, explaining, ‘She has emancipated herself. She doesn’t want to be within her parents’ sphere of influence.'”
“Despite Tuesday’s setback, Rachel’s suit is going forward. [The Judge] ordered both sides back to court on April 22. But the judge hinted that Rachel might have a tough legal burden to handle. ‘The child thumbs her nose at her parents, leaves the house and turns around asking, “Now you have to pay me money every week.” This poses a public-policy issue,’ he said. ‘It’s a slippery slope.'”
Damn right it is. Eighteen. This girl is 18 years old. Now, during the court hearing… I don’t know if you heard about this. During the court hearing, the father, Sean Canning, pleaded, during court, (sobbing), “I’m a liberal, liberal parent! I wish I could have grown up in my house. I was tougher on my cops at work than I’ve ever been at my home, that’s for sure!
But, ” I’m a liberal, liberal parent!” That may be an indication of where things went off the tracks here. Just saying. “I’m a liberal, liberal parent! I wish I could have grown up in my house.” Meaning: “Man, it’s a piece of cake in this house the way I run things here!” Now, the latest in this: “The New Jersey parents being sued for tuition by their entitled teenager were excoriated in a Friday rant on her new Facebook page…
Oh, yeah. The daughter went out there and ripped them. What is her name again? I remember the father’s name. Rachel Cummings, got a Facebook page, and she unloaded on her parents, calling them spoiled Baby Boomers who would rather feather a retirement nest than pay their kid’s college bill. She wasn’t just talking about her parents. She launched into every Baby Boom parent out there. She wrote this on her Facebook page. “I have been stunned by the financial greed of modern parents who are more concerned with retiring into some fantasy world rather than provide for their childrenÂ’s college and young adult years.”
She started by calling her parents spoiled, and then people posted in agreement. “‘Suburban baby boomer types are the spoiled lot, they make massive amount of money a year, they are used to flying to luxury destinations when they want, and buy things that they donÂ’t need, people should be inclined to see things my way.’ The post appeared on the ‘Education for Rachel’ Facebook page, which Canning previously told The Post she set up to support her cause.”
Another poster said, “I see parents like this every day, children were always an accessory to them and nothing more, once that accessory grew up and went out of fashion, much like a marriage that people allegedly commit to, the child becomes a throwaway, thatÂ’s just how it is.”
So, folks, what is happening here is this babe sues her parents, sets up a Facebook page, and people start posting to it, supporting her with all of these assaults on Baby Boomer parents. Now, as one who studies sociology in this society and the culture, I find this fascinating that we have these Millennials now who are looking at their Baby Boom parents as a bunch of materialistic, selfish, concerned only with them and their kids are just accessories.
I always thought it was Hollywood actresses that adopted babies ’cause it was the latest accessory. You know, Madonna setting the trend on that. But now this group is saying that, “We’re all accessories, and all of these Baby Boom parents, all they do is care about themselves. They just want us for the appearance of a solid, healthy, good family, but they’re selfish. They don’t want to pay for us. They don’t want to support us. They don’t want to pay for education. They don’t want to pay for our young adulthood. They don’t want to pay for anything. We’re totally on our own. They’re selfish, they’re brutes, and we’re just accessories.”
Well, I know they’re paying extra for that Catholic high school, but they’re not paying it, that’s the point. They probably would if she hadn’t left home. But she left home, they said, okay, you’re on your own. If you’re gonna split the scene, you’re on your own. Here’s the real world. I don’t know about you, when I was growing up I didn’t set the rules in my house; the parents did. Or anybody else’s house I was in. Even as an adult. Whoever owned the house sets the rules there, no matter how old I was. But certainly kids didn’t set the rules.
But I tell you something, folks, I have noticed. You know, I’m a childless person. I observe others, but I don’t have the actual experience. That actually is what has made writing these children’s books so challenging and fun to do. But I’ve observed over the last couple decades — I mean, it’s different than what I was growing up. A lot of parents demand that their kids be included in every invitation they get. An adult inner party. “Well, I’m not coming unless I can bring my kids.”
“You what? You want to bring the kids?”
“Yes, I do everything with my children, and I’m not coming unless I can bring them.”
So little chronicles of changes taking place. But the selfishness of the Baby Boomers — I think it’s fascinating that these Millennials are now focusing on that while at the same time expecting to be totally supported. It’s mom and dad who are selfish, focused only on themselves, which happens to be true of a lot of Baby Boomers, in fact.