Thursday, February 26, 2009

Children In Trust for our Future

Children In Trust for our Future

"Children are not property nor slaves. Children are held in trust, as they are the next generation. There is no greater privilege than to hold this responsibility. Never get the notion into your heads that they are anything else, nor that our task as parents is anything less than the utmost of importance, or you delve into the realm of true abuse." - Marcia J. LaVine


Yes, that's me. I wrote this in part awhile back, and revised and refined it this evening. I've written quite a bit over time on parenting, what it means to me, and what I believe it should mean to every American parent. Here are a few of my finer points on the matter, and I've included some of my thoughts on government intervention, poor parenting, and when I believe the two shall meet.

"Being a parent is not only the hardest job, but the most thankless, especially when they are the parent of a teenager. Teenager is, contrary to most modern thinking, not a swear word, and I resent the fact that most people, other parents included, seem to believe that all teens are inherently evil, vile, distasteful, or otherwise unsavory and not to be wanted around. I adore having teenagers. They are creative, dark, mysterious, growing, learning, thinking creatures, and I was one of them, not so very long ago, in my own mind. Consider the fact that I think of myself as a 23 year old, with 20 years of experience, and you get my drift. I pity the man or woman who has forgotten what it is like to be young like that! Even with the angst, anguish, hatred for authority, and all the rest that goes along with being a teenager, it was a wondrous time, learning the ins and outs of early adulthood, finding a new footing between child and grown up."

"The government is truly the worst thing to happen to parenthood since the advent of religion."

"I want the government out of my bedroom, and out of my child's nursery."

"One of the worst things to explain to my children was when I had to reassure them that we were not horrible people just because we didn't pay the government to recycle our glass and aluminum. I had to tell them that because we didn't pay to have it picked up didn't mean that we didn't care. We took our stuff directly to the recyling plant, and got money, instead of paying for it. How can that be bad? Unfortunately, the teacher had told the children that if we didn't have the recyling truck pick up our stuff, then we were bad, and creating waste that was killing the planet. How in hell do you get a teacher to stop feeding this destructive crap to your kid?" "A bad parent doesn't give a shit about setting rules, limits, or boundaries, and allows someone else to do it for them."

"Teachers are only teachers, not parents. The government has set up a system where teachers have more power than parents today, and that has changed the fundamental dynamic of the family as a unit."

"The government has no right to tell me what morals to instill in my child. They may have a certain interest in what I teach them for values, but not morals. And they are not the same thing. No politician has the right to demand I teach my child the moral definition of what constitutes "life" as they see fit. They can dictate what the schools teach of as the scientific definition of it, but have no right to teach the moral definition. That is a parental job, not a government function. The government should not be able to dictate to me or my child what the moral definition of "good" is, but can legislate and therefore define "bad" behavior in the form of laws; what the society as a whole has determined to be unacceptable. When government tries to tell my child outright what is "good" ...I get more than a little nervous. I get indignant."

"When a so-called parent is guilty of blatant abuse, there is no punishment strong enough, harsh enough, or long enough to undo the damage caused to yet another human being, who will grow with a distorted view of people in general. The odds that this poor child will grow to distort any offspring they produce is so overwhelming, that no punishment is too much for an adult who has perpetrated this atrocity onto another generation. There is no excuse. Not even abuse. One makes personal decisions as an adult, and as an adult, you KNOW that what happened as a child was wrong, by your own recollections of the denial and subterfuge involved in hiding what was done to you."

"Since every individual is accountable ultimately to the self, the formulation of that self demands the utmost care and attention."- Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse:Dune

I end this article with probably the most profound quotes I've ever read, concerning the raising of children, that I've ever found. It says exactly what most good parents feel, even if they've never considered it directly or tried to put it into words. But as GOOD parents, this is our mantra, our goal, and our ultimate achievement. No government dictate can ever come close to that. No legislation can instill that into our hearts..or our children's hearts.No other person nor entitiy can take the achievement away from us as PARENTS, when we know that we've done our jobs well and with honor. We do not need a government dictate, mandate, nor legislate to tell us why, how, or when to do our job. I resent the fact that some people believe that we do. Maybe it's because they've lost THEIR way, as parents. Maybe they've forgotten it is a PRIVILEGE, HONOR, and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY that we take on, when we decide to have a child; that we will raise them to be good, honorable, responsible people, capable of carrying on that privilage to anther generation of Americans. I am deeply offended that anyone wants to remove even a tiny bit of that from me. I feel so sad for those who would accept or want the government to take even a little of that pleasure away from them. They know not what they do.

Marcia J. LaVine

1 comment:

auntypsychotic said...

'nuf said.
In spades!