Scotland’s come up with a scheme that is sure to make all the Nanny-staters out there jump for joy: the Children and Young People Bill.
Under the plan every child will be appointed a government-sanctioned guardian. As The Scotsman reported:
Children’s minister Aileen Campbell has said the approach would be useful in that a specific individual will have the responsibility of overseeing the wellbeing of specific children. As she put it, this will “make sure there is someone having an overview of what is happening to that child, to make sure that early indicators of anything that would pose a threat or risk to that child are flagged up”.
University of Abertay Dundee sociology and criminology lecturer Stuart Waiton hit the nail on the head with his response—one that we here in the U.S. should keep in mind as Nancy Pelosi pushes universal daycare:
Increasingly, decisions about our children’s wellbeing are being taken out of our hands. Not just education, but sex, health, lifestyle, even political life is taught to children by people outside the home… I hear of cases where children are instructed to tell their parents that the school doesn’t approve of the contents of the parent-provided lunchbox. Elsewhere, we hear of teachers reporting parents to social services for allowing their children to “risk” cycling to school. And just about everywhere we have children being encouraged to tell their own parents off for smoking or drinking at home.
The recognition of the importance of privacy, of the authority of parents and the protection of this privacy and authority by society is declining fast. …
Today it is assumed parenting is simply too hard, children are simply too vulnerable and risks are simply too great to allow for this luxury called “privacy”. This is why nobody is attacking this new bill in defence of privacy and the autonomous family.
Sound familiar? Increasingly, we’re putting our trust in big government, politicians, and the so-called “experts” instead of parents to raise children.
Centuries after our respective wars for independence from England, Scots and Americans alike seem bound and determined to hand it back because it turns out, independence is just too darned hard for some people.