Look out! He's got a knife!

I've got my thinking head on

Reading this, you might want to be aware that I have no children (that I know of). I don't think that invalidates what I say in any sense.

Slavery is illegal. Hence, legally, you do not own your children. Noone owns another person.

Yet many parents behave as if their children are their personal property. I believe that this is a source of many problems, with the most serious probably being the (hopefully usually) unconscious assumption that "I own my kids, so I can do what I want with them (or to them)."

Up to a point you are responsible for your children - both their well being and their behaviour. It is only good and natural that you should feel protective towards them. But just because you are a child's parent, doesn't mean that you automatically know what is best for the child.

Maybe you do, and maybe you don't. You possibly know the child better than almost anyone else alive, but I reckon we've all known many families where the parents and children don't understand each other at all.

In my opinion, our children's well-being is everyone's concern. Everyone is someone's child. We are all potentially everyone's problem, just as we are all potentially everyone's inspiration.

And I'm very pleased that most of my friends with families are clever and sympathetic people who seem to do very well indeed by their kids. I hope to God that when (if?) I have children, I'm not so arrogant as to not ask them how they've managed.

OK, I'm taking my thinking head off again and replacing it with the usual turnip.

Posted by joey at June 8, 2006 12:46 PM