Tweet
Should parents have to be licensed?
Let's discuss the subject
Should we need a license to be a parent?; Janice Turner
You need a licence to drive a car, serve liquor, go on a deer hunt, heck, you need a licence to call yourself a barber.
Why not to raise a child?
Why is it that society demands so very little of prospective parents?
That's what two Nova Scotia academics want to know. They suggest would-be moms and dads be required to get a ``parenting'' licence.
Their idea has attracted much attention, not all of it flattering.
They call the concept pro-active. Some call the idea elitist and authoritarian.
They insist they have only the best interests of children in mind. Parents would be more respectful of their obligations if they had to earn the privilege, they say. A licence would set some minimum requirements, symbolize the importance of parenting and underscore the notion of children's rights.
Child abuse and child abandonment hit the headlines with depressing frequency. Most recently, a 5-year-old girl was found wandering barefoot in the snow in the middle of the night while her mother was at a karaoke bar. The Toronto Children's Aid Society said it deals with 10 cases each week in which children have been left unattended.
A Toronto Star investigation two years ago looked at 70 cases between 1991 and 1996 in which a parent (or other caregiver such as a mother's boyfriend) was charged criminally after a child died of abuse.
Katherine Covell, an associate professor of psychology, and husband Brian Howe, an associate political science professor, are directors of the Children's Rights Centre at the University College of Cape Breton. They maintain that family life and parental freedoms are already regulated. The trouble is, they say, the rules deal with problems after the fact.
Should we need a license to be a parent?; Janice Turner
You need a licence to drive a car, serve liquor, go on a deer hunt, heck, you need a licence to call yourself a barber.
Why not to raise a child?
Why is it that society demands so very little of prospective parents?
That's what two Nova Scotia academics want to know. They suggest would-be moms and dads be required to get a ``parenting'' licence.
Their idea has attracted much attention, not all of it flattering.
They call the concept pro-active. Some call the idea elitist and authoritarian.
They insist they have only the best interests of children in mind. Parents would be more respectful of their obligations if they had to earn the privilege, they say. A licence would set some minimum requirements, symbolize the importance of parenting and underscore the notion of children's rights.
Child abuse and child abandonment hit the headlines with depressing frequency. Most recently, a 5-year-old girl was found wandering barefoot in the snow in the middle of the night while her mother was at a karaoke bar. The Toronto Children's Aid Society said it deals with 10 cases each week in which children have been left unattended.
A Toronto Star investigation two years ago looked at 70 cases between 1991 and 1996 in which a parent (or other caregiver such as a mother's boyfriend) was charged criminally after a child died of abuse.
Katherine Covell, an associate professor of psychology, and husband Brian Howe, an associate political science professor, are directors of the Children's Rights Centre at the University College of Cape Breton. They maintain that family life and parental freedoms are already regulated. The trouble is, they say, the rules deal with problems after the fact.
Comment