The Parenting License

"Some people should have a parenting license before they have kids..."
- Emi Spicer

I agree. Maybe not a license, but at the very least basic training. Have you heard about the tragedy of the kids who died when they locked themselves in a car trunk? There's an apparent dissonance when one of the parents blamed the police. The truth, of course, is that the parents are to blame. And the sad part is, that one parent is taking this to court. He thought the police searching for the boys had a higher responsibility. He didn't want to take responsibility for his own negligence. Blaming is a natural self-defense reaction, especially if you think you can do no wrong. Still, the parents should have had the common sense to watch their kids. Not only that but they should have briefed their kids on simple things like "don't get into a car trunk, that's where you store things and dead people" and "don't be as stupid as me." The principle is true, there needs to be a requirement that if you're going to have kids, my word, swallow your pride and learn from wise people how best to take care of them. There's much more to child-rearing than the first six years and then just coasting along when they go to school. And even then, most parents just wing it and do what their parents did and rely on what they learned before they had kids (which usually amounts to nothing). Responsibility and education go hand in hand. The more you have to look after, the more you have to learn how to look after it. There are so many resources to raising a child right, it's not even funny. And yet a quick look at book sales shows that books about child rearing past kindergarten decline sharply and only books about ADD and strong-willed children generate sales (the latter among Christians mainly, of all things). Kudos to those parents who do their best to learn everything about child-rearing all the way to when the kids get married. And even then, they still need to learn to communicate to their kids as adults. Learning at every stage of the game, that's the key to raising well-adjusted people. It's the toughest job on Earth, but it can be accompished.