Who is to blame?
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Updated: November 02, 2009 10:56 PM
It is always so easy to lay blame. In truth our community raises our children.
To blame parent or parents for the social ills modeled by some teens is like blaming candles and campfires for global climate change. Politicians, police, priests, our pundits of moral authority are chest deep in Ponzi schemes, child sex and abuse scandals, questionable deaths and drunk driving.
Children are not safe in their homes, schools or neighbourhoods. There is no spontaneous imaginative play. If a parent cannot afford for-profit fees, their child can not participate in music or sports opportunities. If you try to play sandlot ball you are trespassing and can be prosecuted. If you don’t hang out in a group you are not safe from school yard violence or pedophiles. If you do hang out in a pack, the police will accuse you of gang affiliations. School budget cuts and the cancellation of school buses sure shows respect for youths and their educational needs.
The society I raised children in seems to promote a complete lack of consideration or respect for anyone but oneself. No matter what I model, my children will follow the influential people in their lives and since they were school age, that has not necessarily been me.
As much as I have done my best to be an aware and accountable parent I have made mistakes. I know that like my parents before me, I have done my best with the tools I had at my disposal. If only the best birds sang the forests would be silent. If parents have to be perfect, the human race is doomed to self annihilation. But I suppose this would be preferable to compassion or consideration.
Children all eventually — if they survive childhood — become adults and then they are ultimately responsible for their own actions. They are all our children.
What example are you setting, are you willing to take responsibility for the model set for the youth of our society?
Why would our children not behave like the examples around them?
Carol Nikolaisen
Parksville
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