Parenting is a huge responsibility. Raising a child is difficult, it shouldn't be taken lightly, or haphazardly. Some ways are better than other, but some ways are just different.
Parents can get feudal when it comes to how they raise their child, or how they disagree with how someone is raising theirs. This can lead to heated arguments and what is called "mommy wars", which can also happen between dads as well. With social media, the arguments can be more frequent, as many parents somewhat "showcase" their parenting methods online for others to see, and often criticize.
There have been several dichotomies put forth with different parents fitting into one category instead of the other. Stay-at-home moms vs. working moms, breastfeeding vs. formula, homeschool vs. public school vs. private school, natural childbirth vs. epidural. Shaming can ensure when parents speak of how they do things that others declare is the "right way".
Parents who disagree with others may think they are doing it the "wrong way", and may even think a parent is bad for doing so, and even tantamount to child abuse of some kind. This is why some parents have taken it upon themselves to bring terror into the lives of other families by reporting other parents to the police or Child Protective Services.
When someone follows the status quo method and thinks it's the "Authoritative" way to do it, there can be consequences for those who go against the grain and challenge the norms or standards others accept as the "only way". Families can be broken up. Parents can lose their children. Parents can go to jail through the authoritarian arm of the government and CPS authority.
The times of simply making a post about disagreements, or scorning at it with a finger or stare have been ramped up. Irrational fears are being ingrained in many minds, turning people into social or cultural watchdogs to make sure the established norms are adhered to. The fear-mongering imposes an Orwellian authority over the lives of others who did no harm as CPS gets brought in to put children in worse situations and conditions.
Children get separated from their loving parents to become psychologically and emotionally traumatized with invisible damage occurring. Children are more likely to be abused, raped, molested or killed in foster care by strangers who only have a monetary incentive to protect or exploit them. Children can become victims of sex trafficking. Children can become "lab rats" as wards of the state, used for medical research of drug testing.
Each time a parent does something that goes against the accepted norms, they risk someone who can't accept how they are doing it calling the police or CPS. Breastfeeding is the natural and normal way to do things, but our twisted modern mindset has made the practice taboo in recent decades where some people viewed it as inferior to formula feeding. But breastfeeding is superior and better for a baby.
Once CPS gets involved, disaster is almost imminent, especially if they manage to get their foot in the door. Social workers have been caught lying and twisting innocent things into claims of abuse and insecure parenting, creating a validation in our corrupt authority structures to kidnap children.
Just because you have nothing to hide, doesn't mean your safe. They don't care that you did no harm, they will make it look like you did harm or were a risk to produce harm. The authority-following people who fear how other parents are doing things are putting parents in fear of losing their children, and traumatize a whole family, for bullshit reasons. As New York Times writer Kim Brooks has said in her article Motherhood in the Age of Fear:
Women are being harassed and even arrested for making perfectly rational parenting decisions.
With society living in fear, many are imposing fear on others and terrorizing them through the authoritarian state apparatus. The old days of letting children go outside to roam freely are eroding. There is a threat lurking around every corner, according to some. If you dare to let your child go outside, ride a bike, and stroll around the neighborhood alone, then you're an unfit parent in their eyes.
Even if they are in your own yard, you're still at risk of someone reporting what they are doing to the CPS, as they deem you an unfit parent. A child has free will and can do things a parent doesn't approve of. And since they child managed to do it, then the parent is to blame for not imposing absolute control of the will of their child to not have them do anything risky, like opening the gate of their fenced yard to go outside of it. Nothing happened to the child, but something "could have", so then parents get brought into court cases, and some loses custody because of our deranged fear.
Some fears are so rare, but that doesn't matter. In an effort to make others safe, we impose our authority on them and punish them (like for not wearing a seatbelt, or bike helmet):
We read, in the news or on social media, about children who have been kidnapped, raped and killed, about children forgotten for hours in broiling cars. We do not think about the statistical probabilities or compare the likelihood of such events with far more present dangers, like increasing rates of childhood diabetes or depression.
Statistically speaking, according to the writer Warwick Cairns, you would have to leave a child alone in a public place for 750,000 years before he would be snatched by a stranger. Statistically speaking, a child is far more likely to be killed in a car on the way to a store than waiting in one that is parked.
But we have decided such reasoning is beside the point. We have decided to do whatever we have to do to feel safe from such horrors, no matter how rare they might be.
Society is in a reversal of cultural norms. What was once normal and accepted, has now been vilified and even criminalized. Then those practices that were depraved or unthinkable are being normalized instead. Parents can be bullied into submission when others disagree with how they do things, be it homeschooling, breastfeeding, vaccination or what ever. All it takes is a phone call about a disagreement in parenting practices to potentially bring terror and trauma into the lives of parents who care about their child. Even if one doesn't lose custody of their child permanently or temporarily, the CPS can come knocking and bring fear down onto parents who did nothing wrong.
Parenting thought police are on the prowl, and they have the weapon of centralized authority through CPS to devastate the lives of parents and children alike.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
References:
- Parenting in the 21st Century: Big Government (and Your Neighbor) Is Watching You and Your Children
- Motherhood in the Age of Fear
If you appreciate and value the content, please consider: Upvoting, Sharing or Reblogging below.
My goal is to share knowledge, truth and moral understanding in order to help change the world for the better. If you appreciate and value what I do, please consider supporting me as a Steem Witness by voting for me at the bottom of the Witness page.
