Time For Parents To Take Responsibility

Parents, stop with the excuses – and take responsibility for your children.

Yes, parenting in this day and age is not simple but parenting has never been a simple matter.  Being involved with caring for birthing mothers I understand very well the challenges of giving birth; yet all the blood, sweat, & tears that go into getting a baby out are nothing compared to the next 18 years of raising a decent caring human being!  Unfortunately, we don’t come into the world already programmed with manners and values.  For the most part these concepts must be learned.

True, most of us are working long hours and both parents in most cases.  Running after our own tails trying to make ends meet and facing a crumbling educational system. Yet, we can’t give up and use this as an excuse to stop educating our children at home.  We love our children but don’t spend enough time with them.  Our schools focus too much on measuring systems without teaching values.  Experts say we have given over parental authority to remote controls and video games.  With the growing sense of apathy in our youth and violent crimes on the rise it’s time to take part in putting a stop to this madness and create a balance between our busy lives and parenthood.

Although, these are valid reasons they are not enough to justify lazy parenting.  Parenting means responsibility and the education of our children starts at home.  You’ve decided to have them so take responsibility for them:  pay attention to what your children are doing, where they are, and with whom they are associating with in reality and the virtual worlds they inhabit.  They are sponges of the environment around them so start being aware even when they are at a young age.

Shrugging blame for unacceptable behaviors onto their friends is not possible anymore.   No more easy excuses that we cannot control the youth of today, the media is to blame, and that they’re just kids so we shouldn’t expect more of them.  Too often when a shocking incident of violence and sexual assault involving minors occurs the parents immediately shake the blame in all directions.  They are shocked, surprised, and all too confident when the authorities arrive that their child could not be to responsible so passing the blame onto friends or victims.

So what am I getting at here?  Take responsibility, do everything you can to not arrive at these irreversible places in the first place.

As a mother of five I realize that not everything is in our control as parents but the job to educate our children is first and foremost.  We must teach them the difference between right and wrong and to respect themselves and others.  It’s our responsibility to teach them to distinguish between reality and what they see onscreen, that shooting someone in real life can result in death.  That sexual experience is an intimate and personal act to be done with consent and never with force or violence.

As a community of parents no matter our religious philosophies or economic status we must unite on a common ground sending a clear message for everyone to take responsibility and get help if needed, and if not, don’t expect others to stand by and try to understand.  It’s time to take back parental authority and responsibility into our own hands and the time is now.

by marquette_magazine