Saturday, January 26, 2013

Apparently Parenting

Most parents inately understand their role in who their children become.  Teachers and coaches, scout leaders and clergy also accept and acknowledge their roles in growing children into productive adults.  Even civic leaders, who taut children as the reason for enacting certain laws, recognize the importance of tending to the next generation.  We all have become who we are because of the community of adults that guided our growth. Remember Hilary's book "It Takes a Village"? Like her or not, she was right on point. It does take a village or a community to raise strong children.  As a whole, we are called to parent, apparently. 

So why - as a society - do we tend to blame solely the parents when a child's behavior goes awry? "Where were the parents?" "Why were these kids allowed to act like this?" "Fine the parents, that'll make them act like parents." "How could the parents not have known?"  Like Harry Truman, culturally we believe the proverbial buck stops there. They have the ultimate responsibility and when a child causes harm to others, our culture sees it as a failure on the parent's part.  We're right yet we're not focused on the bigger picture.  The community too bears responsibility. 

MYOB doesn't work where the growth of our future is concerned.  It is our business 'cause it affects us as individuals whether directly or indirectly.  Act as if every child is your child and understand that discipline is not a dirty word.