As yet another story breaks in the media of a child reared under the most appalling conditions, treated with intolerable cruelty, I have to ask myself why do we allow it to continue? We shake our heads, exclaim at the horror, and demand the perpetrators be punished severely, after the event.
We are all of us guilty of neglect by default and will remain culpable while we live in a society that continues to falsely believe that the Freedom to Breed is an inalienable right.
It is a right we should all be questioning.
The simple truth is that not all people should have children.
Some have neither the skills or the temperament needed for the complex, demanding and highly skilled job of parenting.
Bearing children is a biological capacity that nearly all of us have, like breathing, thinking, walking, and we treat it as a given that because we can, we should.
How much longer are we prepared to support this fallacy before we act? As a measure of protection, our society and our lawmakers insist that there are conditions under which we must attain a level of competence before demonstrating or practising a skill.
None of us can get behind the wheel of a car and drive without training, practise, testing and licensing.
We demand, for the safety of all, that a minimum level of competency be attained.
It is a not unreasonable expectation that when we're out on the roads we're all driving to the same set of rules.
Similarly, if I wish to pursue a trade, from hairdressing to carpentry, I am expected to meet predetermined standards of practice before I am licensed to hang up my shingle.
I have to be licensed to marry, own a dog, cat or cockatoo, or sell alcohol.
Indeed as a licensee every person employed who will sell that alcohol must hold an RSA; Responsible Service of Alcohol certification.
We also, quite justifiably, demand that the professionals who help deliver our children, and those who later teach them, will have attained the highest levels of training and remain committed to keeping up with standards of best practice Why are we so coy about demanding the same of parents? Parenting is the most important job we as a species commit to.
It is the most basic component in our survival skills set and yet, as a species, we let any fool do it, with limited controls, and neither ongoing assessment or training.
We treat it is an innate skill, believing when baby arrives we will magically know how to parent that child effectively.
In a prior age, when generational wisdom was available to new parents, that may have been acceptable.
The wisdom of the tribe would oversee, and commit, to the rearing of the next generation.
In this disconnected, virtual age should we accept the 'because that's how it's always been done' nay-sayers view? We should demand parent training and licensing.
It's not that extraordinary a suggestion when you consider that new parents readily undertake 'birthing' classes in preparation for their baby's safe arrival.
Why stop there? People proposing to breed should have to display a minimum level of competency and demonstrate their commitment to the best possible future of their children by learning how to adequately care for them; from the most basic physical necessities of feeding, washing, recognising distress, to the more complex requirements of emotional nurturing and education.
I am loath to involve government in our lives, to even further erode our privacy, however to continue with current accepted practise dooms us to a society that tolerates abused and damaged children.
Parenting, above all, should be recognised as a privilege not a right.
We are all of us guilty of neglect by default and will remain culpable while we live in a society that continues to falsely believe that the Freedom to Breed is an inalienable right.
It is a right we should all be questioning.
The simple truth is that not all people should have children.
Some have neither the skills or the temperament needed for the complex, demanding and highly skilled job of parenting.
Bearing children is a biological capacity that nearly all of us have, like breathing, thinking, walking, and we treat it as a given that because we can, we should.
How much longer are we prepared to support this fallacy before we act? As a measure of protection, our society and our lawmakers insist that there are conditions under which we must attain a level of competence before demonstrating or practising a skill.
None of us can get behind the wheel of a car and drive without training, practise, testing and licensing.
We demand, for the safety of all, that a minimum level of competency be attained.
It is a not unreasonable expectation that when we're out on the roads we're all driving to the same set of rules.
Similarly, if I wish to pursue a trade, from hairdressing to carpentry, I am expected to meet predetermined standards of practice before I am licensed to hang up my shingle.
I have to be licensed to marry, own a dog, cat or cockatoo, or sell alcohol.
Indeed as a licensee every person employed who will sell that alcohol must hold an RSA; Responsible Service of Alcohol certification.
We also, quite justifiably, demand that the professionals who help deliver our children, and those who later teach them, will have attained the highest levels of training and remain committed to keeping up with standards of best practice Why are we so coy about demanding the same of parents? Parenting is the most important job we as a species commit to.
It is the most basic component in our survival skills set and yet, as a species, we let any fool do it, with limited controls, and neither ongoing assessment or training.
We treat it is an innate skill, believing when baby arrives we will magically know how to parent that child effectively.
In a prior age, when generational wisdom was available to new parents, that may have been acceptable.
The wisdom of the tribe would oversee, and commit, to the rearing of the next generation.
In this disconnected, virtual age should we accept the 'because that's how it's always been done' nay-sayers view? We should demand parent training and licensing.
It's not that extraordinary a suggestion when you consider that new parents readily undertake 'birthing' classes in preparation for their baby's safe arrival.
Why stop there? People proposing to breed should have to display a minimum level of competency and demonstrate their commitment to the best possible future of their children by learning how to adequately care for them; from the most basic physical necessities of feeding, washing, recognising distress, to the more complex requirements of emotional nurturing and education.
I am loath to involve government in our lives, to even further erode our privacy, however to continue with current accepted practise dooms us to a society that tolerates abused and damaged children.
Parenting, above all, should be recognised as a privilege not a right.