Wouldn’t life be great if we had a “How To” manual on parenting?
That way everyone could be perfect, the colleges could teach
psychologist’s and social workers to just make sure the parents were following
the book and everything would be fine.
The government could test parents on the book before they allowed anyone
to have a child, and Planned Parenthood could offer classes on how to pass the
government test without really studying.
If everyone followed the book;
children wouldn’t be abused, develop insecurities, be traumatized by bad
parents, or lack in self-confidence.
School ground bullies would cease to exist, all would be all inspired to
learn and grow up to be perfect parents themselves because they would know to
follow the book.
Social justice and social
equality would appear overnight because everyone was using the book and were,
so to speak, on the same page. The grass
would grow greener, the sky would be bluer, the air would be cleaner because we would have a book that teaches parents how to grow perfect children who will make the
planet better off than they found it.
You know, we have a lot of “how to
manuals” and maybe that’s the problem?
We can’t seem to settle on just one that everyone can follow. The government keeps changing our collective
minds on what is right, or what is wrong.
The parents all read different books and consequently their children
grow up with different perspectives on right or wrong. Teacher’s get caught in the middle; trying to
figure out what book each parent is using and adjusting their standards to them
and the children, or maybe just choosing to use their own book.
At one time, in our history,
this country had a lot of space and very little government. Parents were expected to do the best they
could raising their children, and if they made a mistake or two that was the
unfortunate cost of parenting. The
critical thing for parents was if they didn’t do a good job with their kids
they wouldn’t have someone to look to in their later years. Someone who accepted personal responsibility and could care for them, and take
over whatever business they were doing.
Now, as our population has
grown, we are filling up the available space, and government has grown to fill
up our lives. With fewer and fewer exceptions
we have become nomads, where the idea of permanence and generations of family
in one location is a distant memory. It
sure would be good if we had a book to know what to do.
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