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RE: Should Parents be Liable?

in Reflections15 days ago

If we're going to hold parents responsible then they need to be in charge. All over the world parents are having their kids taken away and put into foster care for inane crap like not honouring today's chosen pronouns, letting them walk home from school, or for spanking them like literally every generation and culture before us.

There seems to be this real disconnect at the moment; a push to hold people responsible for things which are outside of their control, like the violence against women narrative. I can't watch the TV for 10 mins without being told that all men are responsible for cultivating a society full of violence against women.
Huh? How am I in charge? Did I miss an invitation to come in and consult on policy?

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If we're going to hold parents responsible then they need to be in charge.

Oh I agree. A lot of the laws to "protect children" have hamstrung parents from doing their job. Spanking is a big one for me - an incredibly small percentage of parents would hurt their children by spanking, yet to protect against those who would, all lost the ability. The irony is, those that would, don't care about the law.

The only way you are responsible Matt, is over your own actions and by extension, that of your children. which brings back to the conversation of liability. If a 15 year old boy rapes a girl, should the parents of the boy pay a cost?

"Rape" meaning she changed her mind afterwards? "Rape" because she was enthusiastic before, during and after but she's also 15 and so can never consent?
Again, the state contaminates everything it touches, including the parents' authority and therefore responsibility, and also what constitutes a crime and even what words mean.
If a man only gets to see his kids every second weekend; how much liability should he be exposed to, for their actions?
A parent seeing a child start to go off the rails would be incentivised to distance themselves and limit their personal, legal liability.
Feels like there'd be some nasty unintended consequences down that path, so I'd say no.