Last night I saw a fantastic movie, pun unintended, called Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortensen as an eccentric but well meaning father, teaching and training his six children in the ways of life. The family lives out alone in the woods and his different methods of raising his children ultimately are called into question at one point in the movie. The thing is, his children, although eccentric as well, were educated at a level far beyond their peers, were in top shape and living a healthy life. However because their education and way of life Is not 100% normal the children become at risk to be taken away.
Anyway, no more about the movie, if you are interested in seeing it, I totally recommend it, but the real question I pose is should the government be able to interfere in your parenting, if you are adhering to all the laws? I like the think the United States is a country with many different freedoms that are upheld, but in the past 20 or so years we have seen many cases where children are taken away from their parents because they were being taught something that the state or general public doesn’t agree with.
Im not completely sure where I fall on the spectrum of how much power of intervention the government should have in the raising of your own child, but I do know I see some hypocrisies. For example if you are using public services like school utilities ect. I think perhaps the government might be able to have more say, for example forcing your child to vaccinate if they wish to attend publicly offered school. However what if you are teaching your child in homeschooling, but you are teaching them hate towards other people.
There was the notorious case a few years ago where two parents named one of their children Hitler and was basically programming little hateful Nazis. The government stepped in and removed the children for their safety and while things aren’t totally clear, it does seem that the children might have been not as cared for as they should have been in terms of parental responsibility. However I would like to play devil’s advocate and ask what if they had been completely safe and in a happy situation, while happening to be raised as Nazi’s?
Would the government still have the right to step in and remove the children from their home? Is it much different than fundamentalist Christians in the bible belt teaching their children to hate homosexuals? Where do we draw the line on what is acceptable to teach your child? Raising an asshole kid isn’t illegal, in fact I know many people who did it and are seen as pillars of the community. So at what point does the government overstep their bounds?
If you have any alternative views on how to raise your child in the United States, you could potentially be under threat of the government deeming you “unfit” as a parent which really could be anything. The government could take away your child and there would really be nothing you could do about it. This is a scary thought, only made scarier by the idea of where your children might be placed. Perhaps your child ends up living in an abuse foster situation because you were deemed unfit? Where is the justice in that.
Im curious what you guys think because to me it seems like theres a very thin line that actually dictates when the government steps in. Basically if they feel like they don’t want you as a parent, anything can be done to discredit you which seems wrong. Where should we draw the line?