One of the sacred freedoms of US citizens is that parents, not the state, have the inalienable right to raise their children. In many nations, government-controlled systems, such as communism and other top-down systems, announce mandated laws that supersede parental rights. It appears some American parents want the US government to take over many responsibilities that solely belong to the parents.
In the USA, modern culture has rapidly become altered. Today’s parents seem to expect the government to provide after-school services. Many parents want to retain their lifestyle when both parents are working full-time. Their necessary time to handle family and school demands has dwindled, making it impossible to deal with daily family matters, let alone their children’s school issues.
Many parents’ inability to discuss their child’s school progress is allowing the school to make profound decisions about the child’s education with no parental input. The modern parents working two jobs make it difficult to get together in parent-teacher meetings. This leaves the teachers and administrators in charge of the child’s education with little or no input from the parents in their own child’s education.
Major obstacles to assisting with a child’s schoolwork are afterschool activities such as team sports, dance, gymnastics, music lessons and other extracurricular activities. Modern parents are leaving so-called “professionals” to raise their children. During and after school, parents are unaware of much of what their child is exposed to.
Parents’ work schedules demand their children have supervised after-school activities. This leaves parents little options but to keep their children as busy as they are. This results in limited time for children and parents to relax, spend time together and get to know each other. Children need to learn important lessons, how to think, and to learn traditional values to keep them on the straight and narrow path. This is difficult to accomplish since modern parents are just not there to teach these values, attitudes, and thinking skills. Too many parents are not taking the time to be more involved with their children. Many parents are absent from their child’s adolescent confusion into adulthood. Being a parent today is complex and multifaceted.
Some government bureaucrats are attempting to step into the vacuum of parental guidance to micromanage our children through this complex developmental period. Many parents are more than willing to accept governmental assistance in controlling their children’s actions. One such proposed government legislation is to make it illegal for children under the age of 16 to have certain platforms on their cell phones. These social media sites are seen as detrimental to children. Instead of the parents making this decision and directly enforcing their own rules in their homes, the bureaucrats are trying to mandate what children should be doing to protect them from the “digital fentanyl” of social media.
This precedence has already been established with vaccines to prevent the spreading of childhood diseases. Many vaccines have been mandated by an early age regardless of parent’s wishes. Government schools have taught sex education, actually demonstrating how to use a condom to preschool children without receiving parental permission.
Several years ago, the government mandated that college students receive a meningitis vaccine before entering college to prevent this disease from spreading. Kids are being removed from parental custody in some states to “transition” the minors against the wishes of the parents.
Parents need to take control of raising their children to be viable and strong parents and not give their sacred duties over to the government and then complain about government bureaucrats overstepping their boundaries. Either parents do their job of parenting, or the government will pass more laws to attempt to gain control of youngsters who are out of control.
Once the government is given an inch, it takes a mile to increase its power and uses its power to tell parents what they can or cannot do with their children. This opens the door wide to spreading government abuse, which will be more devastating to children as well as our nation, more so than to individual parents.
Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers and blogs, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and the latest book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.
