Just a story about a co-worker that I find interesting that was sparked by the story about the dad who shot his kid's laptop.
One of my co-workers has a kid that was out of control. He was in his late teens and had nothing but discipline problems. He has been in juevy, was kicked out of school and sent to the school for jackasses, had a parole officer, and she was even forced to make him attend sessions with some social worker every week. This woman's life was miserable and everybody knew it. She constantly missed work for court dates, those meetings with the social workers, etc., etc.
I've been trapped by her stories for a good 4-5 hours of my life. The woman had no idea what to do and her husband isn't exactly father of the year material (plus I'm 99% sure he's not the dad). She also has a younger son trying to emulate the oldest, and a really young daughter that she's trying to protect.
Every day she was a ball of stress, she was tired, she'd cry in her office, etc.
Then her son was arrested for shooting someone to death to steal pot and some cash from him. There is no doubt in the case at all, he did it.
(Horrible side note: It took cops 4 days to locate the victim's family because they didn't even notice he was missing...)
She didn't come to work for two weeks when the story broke. She told another co-worker that she doesn't know how she'll face everyone. She even had to move her family to another house for fear of the victim's family coming for revenge. (Not likely.)
Everyone here was shocked, but not. We were sad for her, but everyone also felt...happy for her? People actually talked about it in a positive way.
A few weeks later, and you know what? The woman attends work without embarrassment. She's on time, and doesn't leave early. She's walking around smiling, and is far, far more cheerful than in the past.
Her trouble child murdering someone, and thus, being removed from her life, seems to have had a very positive effect on her. I mean, I'm sure it still sucks that her kid is basically a complete failure, but the good coming from the death of one person, and the incarceration of another is interesting.