So when they turn 21, a "be responsible" switch will magically flip in their minds? The job of parents and society is to teach children responsibility. That me

So when they turn 21, a "be responsible" switch will magically flip in their minds? The job of parents and society is to teach children responsibility. That means having consequences for your actions. And the closer you get to adulthood, the more adult those consequences should get. When I was a teen, some real estate developers tore down a bunch of woods where I had always played and started building a house. I was ticked and I vandalized the construction site. But my crime was discovered, and I had to work carrying lumber in the hot sun and scraping glue off windows to pay back the damage. Why did I have to do this? Because the developer talked to my parents. And my parents made me do it. This was light punishment - I wasn't taken to court, and I didn't get a criminal record. But parents are to children as legal system is to adults: they set the rules and enact the punishments. If they don't, someday the legal system will have to address their failure to do so by locking up their grown children who never learned right from wrong. I'm not sure what the consequences here should be, but the argument "they're kids, they can't be held responsible" is silly. If they're not expected to be responsible, they won't learn to be responsible.