Ronald Reagan once said that “the nine most terrifying words
in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
But even Reagan couldn’t have imagined how the government would come to
intervene in our child-rearing decisions. Stories like this are becoming
commonplace: A mother named Susan Terrillion leaves her children, six and eight
years of age, for less than an hour at their vacation rental to get takeout
food and finds herself inside a police station by the end of the night, booked
and charged with child endangerment, with the future of her custody arrangement
in doubt.
The Meitivs of Silver Spring Maryland had their kids, 10 and
six, picked up by local police not once, but twice, because they were allowed
to walk home by themselves from the park. And the parents of Justina Pelletier
lost custody of their 14-year-old daughter for over a year because the doctors
and staff of Boston Children’s Hospital objected to their decision to transfer
her medical care to Tuft’s University Medical Center. Decisions once entirely
within the realm of normal for any parent have now been criminalized.
In her powerful and angry new book, No Child Left Alone, the
Pittsburgh-based writer Abby Schachter explains that “daycare rules are what
turned me into a Captain Mommy.” She uses the term to describe a mother who is
“on guard against overprotective, overbearing, nannying authorities trying to
take my choices away.” What were some of the regulations with which the
Schachter family was forced to comply to send their children to day care? Only
certain foods could be sent, and had to be sent with strict instructions
(grapes had to be peeled and quartered). There could be no plastic bags. All
uneaten food—even a second half of a sandwich (without nuts, of course!)—had to
be disposed of at the end of the day. A different sippy cup had to be sent for
every single meal and snack time. New babies could not be swaddled without a
note from the child’s pediatrician. Is swaddling a medical decision or simply a
choice that each parent makes? The state of Pennsylvania believes it to be the
former…
She cites numerous examples of parents told individually
that the lunches they packed for their own children were inappropriate. One
school in Chicago, Little Village Academy, banned such lunches because the
principal “didn’t like the choices parents were making.” The policy was
retracted after public shaming, though the story is just one of many instances
of government employees—teachers—dictating to and micromanaging parents about
how they should be raising their own children…
Just as schools don’t trust parents to feed their own
children, they apparently also don’t trust them to guard their health. Despite
the fact that most schools require proof of well-visits and vaccinations in
order for students to start the school year, Schachter reveals: “The federal
government and some 21 states have instituted rules that public-school kids get
health screenings during school hours.” During school visits to the nurse for
additional health checks, students are weighed (even by their own peers if the
nurses are short-staffed) and have their body mass index (BMI) recorded. If
that number is outside a certain range, a letter is sent home to parents. Not
unsurprisingly, these letters aren’t exactly optimal for students’ self-esteem
and self-image. Schachter cites real-life examples of young people—mostly
girls—whose “Fitnessgrams” sent their self-worth into a tailspin.
The ironic part about the obsession with weight is the
contributing role the school day now plays in the American “obesity epidemic.”
Recesses and free play have been eliminated in favor of more time spent on
academics, despite the fact that additional classroom hours have not been shown
to improve test scores. Schachter and many other parents bemoan the loss of
recess for most kids, which is, as she says, the simplest and cheapest remedy
to obesity and a sedentary culture. Who spends more time outside, maximum-security
prisoners or children? A new study shockingly indicated the former; children
spend on average 30 minutes per day outside…
Across the country, parents and guardians are targeted by
law-enforcement and child-protective agencies for the crimes our parents
committed daily: making reasonable and nuanced decisions about how, when,
where, and for how long children can be left alone. If we now expect children
to be supervised at every moment until their teens, they won’t get nearly as
much time outside as previous generations enjoyed. While it’s never been safer
(according to crime statistics) to raise a child, we are more protective than
ever, stifling our kids and keeping them indoors, addicted to screens.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/2141035/
http://childnervoussystem.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-pelletier-potpourri.html
http://childnervoussystem.blogspot.com/2015/08/medical-kidnap.html
http://childnervoussystem.blogspot.com/2015/08/medical-kidnap.html
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