Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxn.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxn!rlr 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