Parents who don't have time for their kids.

So our conservation group is organising a trip to a conference/market as we do several times a year. Each time one of our teenaged members asks his dad (who used to be in the group but dropped out because of "work commitments") to come along. The kid also asks him to come along to band practices and other stuff for support. His dad always has an excuse, sometimes this is work but recently he has been spending his days off taking out someone else's kid.

Now this other kid has special needs and it is good of him to give the parents a break but for over a year now he has repeatedly done this and disappointed his own son. The poor kid is getting fed up with a lot of this because he feels ignored by his dad. He asks weeks and months in advance for his dad to do stuff with him and his dad keeps going off to do something else.

He's not a bad kid - especially compared to most teenagers out there! - but you can understand why some kids go off the rails when their parents show no interest in them and won't give them some time.

I know an even worse example where someone who works as a teacher spends all her time at home shut in her room on internet chat ignoring her own kids - but constantly telling everyone how she wins over difficult kids with poor home lives.

Why? Why do people have kids and then ignore them and, worse, rub in their faces the good time and wonderful experiences they have with other people's kids.

Is it just me or do you find this kind of thing scarey because it is so nuts?