WIY, I hate to tell you this, but we are no long in PREWAR EUROPE, and we are no longer living in the times of the Torah when a boy of 13 or a girl of 12 were of marriageable age or worked in the fields. Things are different today. WE have to understand the emotional, psychological and biological age of a 12 or 13 year old. What they are capable of understanding and doing versus when they are 16, 21, and even 30. Are you saying that you did not change from the time you were 13? That you didn’t do things differently when you were 16 or that your opinions and actions didn’t change and then change again when you were 21 and then 30? Are you saying that you didn’t handle things differently at the different stages in your life?
Anyone that says that there is no difference between a 12/13 year old and a 16, 21 or 30 year old is ridiculous. Choices, actions and emotions are handled differently at different maturity levels in life and at different stages because of the additional knowledge and life experience. NO, a person’s level or responsibility is different at their different stages of life and NO we cannot compare a 12/13 year old today to one of PRE WAR times or in the times of the Torah. WE can only speak of what we know today.
So I will say this again. WE are all entitled to our own opinions. Some of us have more informed opinions than others because of OUR OWN experiences working within the PARSHA and some are just speculating with an opinion peering in from outside the window WHICH IS VERY DANGEROUS because you do not fully understand and comprehend what these children have gone through or are going through and YOU should know that you are adding salt to their wounds and to the wounds of their parents who are possibly reading these threads. AGAIN I am going to say this to be very clear. THOSE of you who are playing devils advocate and are speculating with your opinions on this subject are adding salt to the wounds of parents in this parsha. BE VERY CAREFUL what you say because one never knows who Hashem will choose to test next. My mother always says “a mench zol nisht reden vi lang er hot kinder in shteeb”. A person shouldn’t “spout opinions” as long as he too is still raising children.