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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Parents' "rights"/responsibilities - reply to Mike Ward
Message-ID: <963@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Aug-84 22:40:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.963
Posted: Fri Aug  3 22:40:10 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Aug-84 04:04:10 EDT
References: <1295@qubix.UUCP> <1094@hao.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 31

> What this?!  I have NO right to choose how to raise my children, but Rosen
> does have the right to make that choice (about my children?)
> 
> The issue is not parents' rights vs childrens' rights, but parents'
> rights to protect their children against the know-it-alls who really
> know squat! [MIKE WARD]

Nowhere did I claim the right to make choices about raising Mr. Ward's
children.  I claimed that all children need to be protected from parents
who would impose their restrictive mindsets on their children to the exclusion
of their children's own independent thinking.  A parent's responsibility is to
raise children to be free thinking independent adults, unencumbered by parents'
views of what "their" children (sounds a lot like ownership to me; hey, wanna
buy a kid?) "should" be like, expressing *their* individuality, and not that
of their parents.  How that is to be done is left up to the parent.  (Which is
a shame in many cases, since so many parents are either unqualified or
uninterested in doing a proper job of raising a child with the child's best
interests in mind.)  Parents who put their "rights" to raise a child as *they*
choose above the needs of the child to grow up to be a rational adult are NOT
FIT TO BE PARENTS!!  It's that simple.

The point is:  your having had a nice time making babies doesn't give you 
the right to control the life of another human being.  Parenting is an
incredible responsibility, and that responsibility squelches to sheer
nothingness any "rights" you may wish to exercise in "choosing" what you
want your child to be like.  The job of parenting involves raising a child
to be an individual, a self-assured independent thinker, and not a clone
in your own image of what YOU want him/her to be.
-- 
Now I've lost my train of thought. I'll have to catch the bus of thought.
			Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr