Who is the better parent?

Star Tribune, March 26, 2023

A piece of classroom management advice I still remember from my student teaching days was: “Never make a rule you can’t enforce.” I thought about that warning when I read the news clipping above.

While I am not sure the enforcement of “putting a curfew on social media use from 10:30 pm  to 6:30 am is even possible, not to mention extremely burdensome for tech companies, I am even more bothered by this attempt by lawmakers to usurp parental authority. Why do politicians feel they would be better parents to children than the actual parents themselves?*

This is but one of many recent proposals in which parental authority is being replaced by governmental regulation. Book banners want to restrict other people’s kids from reading things they themselves do not like. Anti-gender affirming and abortion laws move medical decisions from the family to the government. What’s next - banning all sugar-coated cereal from the home breakfast table and requiring all students use gender-neutral bathrooms? Good grief.

This is not to say that I don’t think governmental regulation is necessarily a bad thing. I sort of like things like speed limits, health requirements in restaurants and meat packing plants, and effective banking rules. These all seem somewhat enforceable.

And kids under 18 should have parental permission in making decisions that will have life-long consequences like gender changes and abortions. (In Minnesota, those under 18 need parental permission to get a tattoo. A recent pundit in the local paper suggested we become a sanctuary state for youngsters wanting, but denied, body art in their own states.)

Why does it seem that both sides of the political spectrum have lost faith in the ability of parents to raise children who are good people? How can we place so little faith in our own neighbors?

*Parents can enforce the social media curfew (and most other internet misuse) by simply not allowing personal technologies to be used in the bedroom. Seemed to work pretty well for my daughter’s family.