Shouldn't his parent discipline him? Oh wait........ YOU'RE the parent!

Shouldn't you stop to think that you don't know what happened after this incident? Oh wait, we NEVER get the full story, so stop assuming that the little shit just got away with it, and quit attacking the OP on groundless assumptions.

Weren't you ever 12? If the child has a paintball gun, I'm pretty sure the parents have given him some length of autonomy. At 12, I did all kinds of things my parents would beat me for. Hell I did that at 18 as well, but I never got caught. That's what boys do, it's not the parents at fault. Punish him afterwards and make him work the damages off. Lesson learned.

24 - relentlessly means that the child didn't relent. So, either the parent tried to stop the child and was unable to or didn't try to stop the child. Either way it seems like a parenting fail or a grammar fail.

Don't worry, the federal government will punish him, since he vandalized a mail truck.

The kid hates the mailman...what can we say?

57- It isn't specified whether or not the parent was home during the "attack."
There are too many variables left unspecified to theorize upon the OP's parental aptitude. Also, I'm pretty sure "relentless" was just added in to make the description more colorful.

Just so you know, everything has worked out fine. The mailman was pretty nice about it. He had to wash off the back of the truck, and pay a little money to help fix it.

57- If you are going to shoot it once, might as well empty the hopper on it. It doesn't matter if you shoot 1 or 100 times, you still shot the truck.

What do you mean a grammar fail? That's irrelevant.

#84- Well maybe someday I will reach the level of perfection your brother has, until then I will be using the old "boys will be boys" excuse. Raised right? Isn't that more of a subjective measurement? Seems to be more of a matter of opinion to me. For instance, I will have my son punching kids in the face for saying anti-Semitic remarks.

Good thing he was a nice person and didn't rage about it.
.

"Boys will be boys" is just an excuse for boys not to be punished for stupid shit they do.

Plenty of guys go without shooting at others at inappropriate times. I don't see why it'd be so difficult for others to do the same.

I wouldn't worry about discipline. I'm sure the kid will get plenty by the Feds.

Boys will be boys annoys me for different reasons. Little girls love doing to same bad thing little boys do (shooting paintballs at mail trucks). How about "kids will be kids"? And he should be punished. Clean the truck, learn gun safety (which does apply to paintball guns), and privileges revoked.

Could not agree more with 89

#89 - 'boys will be boys' covers random mischief and perhaps a little bit of acting like idiots but not blatant dangerous behaviour. If I had done something like this I certainly would never have been allowed near a paintball gun again, and that would have been just the beginning of my punishment.

Why does a 12 year old have a paintball gun? I never even used one and I am twice his age minus 1. I don't even know why one would own a paintball gun to begin with(unless a pro painballer like those guys on tv). What are you really going to use it for? It would just make a mess.

#89 So you think it's appropriate to teach your kid that violence is the answer to stupidity?
What a great parent you must be ...

OP, that still doesn't say if you disciplined him or not, if you didn't then you are a terrible parents, you have to do something to your kid to make sure they don't do it again, that doesn't mean lay a hand on them, it means any other way of disciplinary actions

He's twelve, he should know right from wrong by now. Not all your fault OP.

she was way too busy to discipline her kid because she had to post this FML first.

Kid is going places

You know, except for buying him a paint ball gun.

Only in 'murica... Even kids get guns. Sheesh.

Paintball, Squirt guns, potato guns....? It takes a special kind of idiot kid to abuse those in a destructive manner. Not necessarily the parents fault that a select minority of dumb fuck children like to do dumb fuck things. In ALL countries.
(P.S. there are countries all over the world whose respective governments that completely condone the instruction of firearms use from an early age onward. Actual firearms, not toys.)

Whoops. Missed deleting the "that" when I was re-typing. Disregard :D

Though I don't agree that no kid should ever be given a paintball gun (should depend on the maturity of the kid themselves), I think there is a big difference between paintball guns and spud/water guns...

Yeah because, you know, Canadian kids don't play paintball or anything

I don't know about anyone else, but I am getting sick of people hating on America all the time not all of us are stupid.

When all the news outlets only report the stupid things Americans do and none of the positives. You can't blame other countries from getting a misguided view.

44 Though this may be true if it wasn't for Americans we wouldn't have most of our modern technology that we do today, even if people sometimes use it for stupid reasons

Honestly, I just laugh at these America-haters.

Go back to 4chan, so I can more properly insult you.

Says the guy with a tank for a pic obsessing in his bio about how he loves WWII and learning about weaponry tactics. Hypocritical much?

#55 if it wasn't for americans, we wouldn't have this advanced technology? Is that hidden irony, or are you seriously joking??
Try Germany (the H-bomb, nucleair bomb & energy, VW, BMW), The Netherlands (Philips, Delta/waterworks, building dams that indeed protect against flooding, Shell) or Japan (Sony & and every other electronics).
The only things americans make and sell are guns, and we all know what that resulted in the last 70 years or so..

Thank you for blindly stating idiotic "facts" The USA is the worlds richest country because of exporting things other than gun, we were the third largest exporter last year with our engines alone making us 205.2 billion dollars.

If your son hasn't already been informed, maybe now would be a good time to let him know... On August 2, 1968, assault on a mail carrier became a federal crime in the United States. I hope your mailman has a sense of humor or your son could be in big trouble. We were all stupid kids once. Use this opportunity to help scare him smart! Good luck!!!

#5, that late, really? I thought it would have always been a federal crime to assault a federal employee. I hope they send the little bastard down to Gitmo.

Holy crap, man! I read that whilst drinking coffee... I spit coffee all over my phone. Well played!

I wonder if it was a "random" paintball gun or if it was HIS gun, in that case, it's your fault.

Because OP knew that her son would shoot the mail truck...

She gave her son a gun. A GUN. How could you not think of this when giving someone a paintball gun? No twelve year olds should be given that and by saying this, I think that it's her fault.

Right cause a paintball and a bullet are the same thing. And not every 12 year old is a dumbass

You could still get blind or deaf, pretty serious in my opinion.

By 12, I had owned a succession of slingshots, bb-guns and actual air rifles. Yes, I did stupid things. Yes, I got caught and severely punished. But I learned responsibility and came to understand physics a bit better.

Our society today is all about being "safe." So the more dangerous toys are discouraged. But they're still there. OP's son did learn a lesson about being a dumbass. Children do stupid shit. It's why parents are responsible legally and financially for their actions, until they reach majority (excepting certain conditions).

2001 was just a terrible year.

Artists, we can't hope to understand their brilliance. A mail truck is strange medium though. Perhaps they can find something better for him when he is locked up in juvenile prison.

Get them!

Get off FML and discipline your child

Is 'infront of the neighbours' really the issue here?

Right? I'm pretty sure the neighbors already know this person is a shitty parent.

When I was 12, my friend and I used his paintball gun to shoot at trains too, but in a forest, not in front of neighbours. I regret it now, but yes kids do stupid things. This FML implies the parent knows what the child is doing, and now the neighbours think lower of OP's parenting.