There is much ado about what some people regard as the brainwashing of children, others call it instilling their children with values, others still, teaching. Oh wait, I left out passing on the faith.
You know the one those not having any have so much to say about.
Whatever the concept it’s clearly a case of different strokes for different folks. For the benefit of those who might misunderstand the gist of the article, I am referring to one’s OWN children, not anybody else’s.
We have become a typical Nanny society with everybody pecking at everyone else like confused birds, with all and sundry having an opinion, not always a worthy one of course, but the worst of it is that this ‘attitude’ is regarded as laudable. In previous generations this view would have been treated with short shrift and its ‘dictators’ dismissed as busybodies in addition to being told to mind their own business. Now anybody with a p.c. can jump onto their high horse and lecture the world,- especially parents,- noxious NGO and their ‘childless’ experts, psychologists, social workers, and government spokesmen owned by lobbyists.
The trouble is we have become regulated within centimetres of our lives and there are too many complacent citizens. Again, regulation is just another form of control by governments and institutions.
What exactly is a nanny state? Why does it exist? Let’s take a look.
There are dangers in eroding parental authority, and this is what’s happening.
Instead of being the bosses in their own homes parents have become mediators in the relationship between child and state, and told that their main responsibility is not to do right by their child but
to do the right thing according to the current parenting orthodoxy.
Maybe the problem is that civil society has retreated from its former ‘job’ of caretaking children so the state has moved in. Power abhors a vacuum to borrow an idiom.
Robert Nisbet, communitarian libertarian states; In a society without strong private associations, the State would take their place…..assuming the role of the schoolroom, the church and the family.
The other problem is that some people- in the nanny state- feel empowered to report a parent
because they aren’t managing their children the way I think they should. So unless the most sensitive, neurotic, or obnoxious person in the neighbourhood’s views are catered to, it is now a crime. As parents always query other parent’s skills and choices because hey, we always know best, this is just human nature at work. So of course it goes without saying that everyone who agrees with us is brilliant. Needless to say the converse applies as well.
Someone aptly said that criminal law is not a child-rearing tool. I’m referring to those who rush out and contact the authorities- out of self- righteous passion- or spite, do you really think that a child would be better off being reared as a ward of state rather than being raised by a loving parent in their formative years. Does turning a parent into a criminal make a child’s life better?
Remember, the only reason authorities and their protagonists don’t want parents as the prime authority in a child’s life is because THEY covert this role. And that’s a really scary thought.
Remember Mao’s cultural revolution was to eliminate the parents and teachers who wouldn’t conform to the new order, why? Well the children would be putty in their hands, and all obstacles in their quest of creating good little communists had been removed. With the cherry on the top being the state installed as the new parents.
In closing, parents have the right to raise their children how they see fit, including instructing them in values, faith etc. regardless whether anyone else approves or not. It doesn't matter what YOUR views are, they don't feature in the scheme of things, rather concentrate on your own children and leave other people's alone.
So to all you control freaks, aka
governments, institutions and nanny citizens out there take a hint.
Two words for you; lay off.