When Women and Children Became Prisoners of Opinion

Lately we've been reading about incidents in which children have been taken away from their mothers, and the mothers find themselves in prison for placing their children in harms way. Child abuse is a terrible crime, but these mothers aren't always the criminals they are made to be.

Only 30 years ago, children roamed the streets freely and were often told by their parents to go out and stay out. It was the natural way of life. But today, parents fear letting their children out, not because they fear for their children's safety, but because other parents will report them if they do.

Now why is that?

Fear seems to be the number one reason. A superiority complex seems to be the other. People fear for the safety of children, and feel that they know how these children should be raised. But do they?

Women are routinely told to avoid certain places, especially at night, and they are also told how to dress, how to speak, how to act, to avoid being sexually assaulted. We seem to be doing the same thing to our children. 

Of course the world is a dangerous place, and women find themselves often in situations that are unsafe. The same is true of children as well. But I have a question: since most of abuse happens in the home, why do we focus on the strangers? Why do we not remove all women and children from their homes before a potential situation arises that will place them at risk? Why do we do so only in the cases in which a stranger may come and cause harm?

Men are not evil, but this thinking makes them all evil, and I object to this thinking. There are good men and bad men; there are good women and bad women; there are good children and bad children. This mentality that has everyone lock their children up "for their own good" is not good for anyone. It's not good for the men who are demonized, it's not good for the women who lose their children, it's not good for the children who lose their mothers.

And why is it that the same people who report other mothers - mostly women it seems - cry foul when women leave their children with other caregivers when they go to work? Why is it immoral for some women to leave their children in the care of others and thus "deprive their children of their mothers" but it is not immoral for some women to report other women and thus "deprive their children of their mothers." The hypocrisy is alarmingly glaring, yet few seem to notice it.

Do we place a child in harms way when we let them out of the house on their own? It depends on the situation and the maturity of the child. Who is best equipped to make such a decision? Parents or strangers? And why is it that so many people advocate fiercely for the parent's right to parent without interference when it comes to all kinds of things, but when parents exercise their right to parent without interference when it comes to letting their children out of the house without supervision, they are reported as if they were criminals? I think there are just too many busybodies out there with nothing other to do but to keep on eye on their neighbors like an old gargoyle. May the Lord help us purge our communities from this scourge.