I really never realized the pressure parents are under until I had kids of my own, and boy, is there ever pressure!
I don't claim to have all the parenting answers, but you know what I do have? A choice as to how I will raise my kids. That choice is precious to me. Yes, the pressure to produce brilliant, beautiful, mindful heirs is always there, but at least I still have a choice as to how I can best help my kids become those things.
A lot of people nowadays don't seem to think we should have a choice. Take the pro-vaccination crowd, for instance. I'm seeing more and more of them insisting that those of us who opt out of vaccines need to be held financially responsible if our kid happens to come into contact with theirs and their kid ends up sick. Another gem I've heard is that the government should seize our houses, cars, and funds unless we start vaccinating. And we haven't even touched the whole idea that EVERYONE should be forced to vaccinate and have no choice at all.
There are also the anti-gun people who swear if we just take away everyone's right to own guns then crime will just stop completely. *blinks* I just can't even.
A lot of places are now dumping fluoride in their water, as well, saying it's an effort to "help strengthen teeth." But they leave out that fluoride is hazardous to your body when ingested (remember at the dentist's office where you just swished it around in your mouth and then spit it out? Yeah, there's a reason.) they also seem to forget that there is no way to properly calculate how much fluoride each person will end up ingesting, so those of us who drink a lot of water could end up poisoning our body. Fluoride causes massive stress on your adrenal and thyroid glands and has been linked to hypothyroidism... and yet, because some clever person had a flair for dressing up a disaster with pretty language, the public has no idea of the damage this is doing, nor do we even have a choice in most situations.
There's the other matter of no longer being able to discipline your children without facing jail time. I am not promoting child abuse, but parents cannot do hardly anything to teach their children respect and boundaries anymore because they're petrified of having those precious children taken away.
And don't get me started on how hard the government makes it to homeschool your children, even though they've done a crap job of overhauling the public school system. The poor kids nowadays are being squashed into submission with any hope of creativity and ingenuity being violently rooted out and destroyed. And yet, those of us who want to nurture our children and help them create and absorb and enjoy life are often labeled as uneducated hippies or unfit, ignorant morons.
All of these things are hard enough to deal with, but when you add all of the bloodthirsty, bitter, hateful comments so many people fling around, it just compounds it into sheer misery. Well that's just rude.
Do yourself a favor and don't read any of the comments following any online news article because you will most likely either cry or be in a bad mood for the next week. I see parents screaming at other parents, calling them foul names and insisting they're complete morons... but why? Because the other parents had the nerve to form a differing opinion?
I hate the direction this country has taken in the last decade. There is such fear-mongering over everything, we're being bullied and pushed and pulled and forced and the worst part is that now the American people have started joining in the bad behaviors of our government.
Would these angry people screaming for more rules, regulations, and laws really enjoy the kind of world they're promoting? When we have no choices regarding the food we eat, the water we drink, the clothes we wear, the houses we live in, the schooling our children receive, the books we're allowed to read, the movies we can watch, the people we can associate with, the medical care we are able to utilize (or even IF we want to utilize it) will these people really be happier?
I don't think these people realize they're being manipulated... likely they won't realize it until it's too late. After watching this shift occur over several years and even decades, I find myself asking more and more, "Where is your humanity? You weren't created to behave this way."
*shakes head*
