TheAgitator.com
Parents Mag Says the Best States Do the Parenting for You
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008Parents magazine ranks the top “kid-safe” states. It’s too bad that most of the criteria for the rankings center around a state’s willingness to pass a bunch of laws telling parents how to raise their children.
Example:
Surprisingly, basic safety devices like booster seats and bike helmets aren’t required in most states — 31 fail to mandate one or both of them. “Having a law is essential, even if you wouldn’t dream of putting your preschooler in the car without a booster seat,” says Alan Korn, director of public policy for Safe Kids Worldwide, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C. “Not only does a law educate parents who might not be as safety-conscious as you, but it also makes it easier for you to handle protests from your kids. When my 7-year-old says he’s too big for a bike helmet, I just remind him that it’s the law. Argument over.”
God forbid you teach the kid to wear a helmet because it’s the rational thing to do. Maybe teach him something about risk and responsibility. No, instead, just tell him he’s gotta’ wear a helmet because the all-knowing legislature–the ones who make laws with processes like this–simply say so, and if he doesn’t do as they say, he’ll be breaking the law.
I guess Parents magazine assumes that their audience is as stupid and unfit to parent as the politicians do.
So what does this guy do when his kid refuses to eat his veggies?
I picture him sitting in a corner, defeated and impotent, waiting for the state legislature to pass that long-overdue Broccoli Bill.
I guess I’ve been doing it ALL wrong all these years with my statement…”Because I said so…argument over.” Why do I have the feeling that this is also the guy who gives in to his obnoxious child’s every whiney demand for candy and toys while waiting in line at the check out…
People that need to be legislated on how to raise their children shouldn’t be allowed to have them…just my opinion.
Brilliant parenting. Teach your children that the thing called ‘the law’ has more force than you, deserves more respect than you, and is the final authority. They may as well tell their children “I am but an inconsequential person with no authority, do not listen to me, listen to The Law.”
It’s funny to me that we need a law to educate people about common sense. Why, without laws indicating how often and with what items we should bathe, it’s a wonder so many of us are presentable on a daily basis.
To be fair, a parent could say “it’s the law” and also explain why it makes good sense to where the helmet.
I’m sure that safety-negligent half-wits just sit around perusing the state codes, find out they’ve been breaking the law on child-restraints, then come to their senses about the error of their ways.
[...] don’t think I can respond better than Radley Balko, God forbid you teach the kid to wear a helmet because it’s the rational thing to do. Maybe teach [...]
So parents can tell their kids that there’s a Santa Claus and an Easter Bunny but need an actual law to tell the kids they have to get in a booster seat?
Clearly, two things are true:
1) someone needs to make a list including factors like “bike helmet *use*” rather than “bike helmet *laws*, and
2) anyone smart enough to think of that is too busy doing something constructive rather than “ranking states”
I am far more outraged by the video link at the end of the post than by the Parents Mag doing a list of the best (nanny) states. Saw this story a while back on the news here in TX & couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Until parents take care of their children, they are doomed.
And lookie there! Mississippi. The least kid-friendly state! Imagine that…
Wait until the law is all children must turn in their parents for being un-American or believing in the wrong faith.
Sorry Daddy, but it’s the law. Enjoy your time in the re-education camp. I know I’ll enjoy not having you or mommy around. (That’ll teach you to punish me for missing my curfew). — says the 16 year old kid that manipulates the system.
The most discouraging part of the story for me was this:
So that’s what shuts the kid up, respect for the law? Hopefully that kid will be curious enough when he gets a little older, learn to think for himself, and never accept “it’s the law” as sufficient rationale for complying with a request. The immediate thought of anyone in such a situation should be, “yeah, but is it a just law?”
I can imagine a scenario where having these things be “laws” is actually ahrmful to kids as well - though certainly not the readers of perent mag who would never break this law anyway and so it serves no purpose for them.
But as a lawyer in the child-welfare system, I have seen many times where parents merely breaking the law turns into get DSS involved in their lives and maybe even kids being removed from what are otherwise perfectly decent homes. Of course if a parent is not using a car seat for a child of necessqary age someone should inform the parent, but when you make something illegal then everyone else feels they should step in or that kids should be removed and traumatized.
Case in point, there are almost no cases where the only complaint is alcohol abuse (even after a DUI), but get picked up for possessing weed and a referral will be made to someone to go “investigate.”
I’m so glad to see that the Democratic People’s Republic of New Jersey ranked highly on that list.