Not many groups are as embattled today on both sides as are parents. On the one hand CPS et al are removing any authority from parents with bulldozers, and on the other side legislatures are constantly passing 'parental responsibility' laws to hold parents responsible for the misdeeds of their children! It seems like parents just can't win!

To be quite honest, my opinion is that without authority there cannot really be much responsibility legitimately levelled at parents. And since parents cannot do anything that in any way upsets or distresses their children without CPS breathing down their neck with 'child abuse or neglect' charges, just drooling over the opportunity to kidnap their children and shove them into foster care or adopt them out, I find it hard to hold parents entirely responsible for the fact their kids might misbehave.

Let's be fair here. If the Nanny State is preventing the parents from controlling their children through disciplinary methods that work in their family, if the children are out of control isn't it the Nanny State which is to blame, if anyone? It is unreasonable to put the parents in a straitjacket and leg irons and then fault them for not being able to run a 4 minute mile!

When I was a child the parents' word was LAW in the house. There was no higher appellate level. Today anytime a child disagrees with a parent on a decision they are encouraged at public school and by advertisements by the police and CPS to complain to others about it so these other agencies can force the parents to make things more to the child's liking! In an analogy to crewing, you have a group of people but only one person calls the strokes. This is like having stroke-calling be a committee decision. And in parenting it works equally as well as that would. In other words, horribly!

Except in cases of CLEAR abuse, such as long term abandonment (measured in days, not minutes), inflicted injuries, etc I feel that the government has no place interfering in internal family matters. PERIOD! The government is there to protect the nation, preserve the peace and make sure services run smoothly. It is NOT there to micromanage families! If someone thinks they have a better idea on parenting they can write a book like everyone else has. But that is not enough for these busibody buttinskis... oh no! They have to lobby for laws to be passed mandating their unproven and factually unsubstantiated pop psych pap on all families, as if all families are the same (Clue:The aren't!), by force of LAW. This is offensive to me in the extreme!