From: yfcw06@castle.ed.ac.uk (S R Leather)
Newsgroups: alt.parents-teens,misc.kids,soc.men,soc.women,alt.dads-rights
Subject: Re: Response to Deluge About Hillary Clinton
Date: 22 Jul 92 11:31:01 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

shedevil@vix.com (Anne P. Mitchell JD) writes:


>This post, which will have to by necessity be shorter than it ought,
>is to respond to the multitude of replies to my post about Hillary
>Clinton.

>I, as much as anyone else I think, believe in the rights of children,
>*and* the ability for them to get themselves out of a bad situation.
>Heck, I myself was emancipated as a minor.  In fact, I was out on my
>own at the age of 11.

>What such a proposal *would* do would be to allow your adolescent son
>or daughter to drag you into court because you have said "No, you
>cannot have a full-time job while you are flunking all of your
>classes."  It will allow your teenaged daughter to sue you because you
>won't let her get liposuction [not to mention pay for it].

>What else it would do would be to create a whole new industry of legal
>professionals.  Wow...what a deal..I can cull clients from the junior
>high school, and heck, if I win get their parents to pay their legal
>expenses, on *top* of that plastic surgery.

>If I truly believed that this idea would help neglected or abused
>children, then I wouldn't have even posted it.  Geez, I'm not
>unreasonable, or unfeeling even.  I happen to believe though, that it
>will not only not help the kids who need it, but it will *harm* those
>kids who are *not* mature enough to make such decisions, but drag
>their parents to court anyway..because they can.  So what if they end
>up losing their case...the harm done to the family at that point could
>be irreparable.

>This is NOT to say that there aren't real problems with the system.  I
>just don't think that this is the answer, and in fact I think it could
>be very harmful, in the long run, to the kids themselves, as well as
>to society as a whole.

I may be putting my oar in where it is not wanted, but looking at this
from the other side of the Atlantic and as a parent of 6 children (the
two eldest now away from home at University (as a Medical student - the
other an outdoors pursuit instructor), I have to say that as with most
things from the US (as perceived on this side of the pond e.g. political
correctness, non-sexist language, rediting of history so as not to
offend ethnic groups, rewriting of classical literature so as ditto),
the plans to divorce parents etc once again is a sign of what we see as
American Over the Topness i.e. a wild swing that will do no part of
society any good whatsoever.

I was not mature enough to make a decision about divorcing my parents
when I was 12, and certainly no teenager is mature enough to make a
sound decision (well perhaps a few but in the main teenage and mature
decison are contradictions in terms).  As a teenager, I considered that
parents had no rights at all - after all (went my reasoning) they
brought me unasked into this world so they have got to pay for it - and
I think that most teenagers and young adults for that matter, feel that
the world owes them a living and that they are the most important part
of that world.  Parenting changes that viewpoint.

In summary, I agree with Anne - keep children children (and safe).  Let
them grow up when they are ready to grow up - don't force them to feel
that they have to make decisions about sex (safe or otherwise), peer
repression etc.  Give them the discipline that they need and
(subconciously want) and prepare them to be responsible adults in a safe
world.

Simon
-- 
        Simon R Leather                  /   Where the aphid flys
Entomology Branch, Forestry Commission, /    so fly I
Northern Research Station, Roslin,     /    
Midlothian, Scotland, EH25 9SY        / Dr.S.R.Leather@castle.ed.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.parents-teens,alt.child-support