Are parents morally responsible for their children?

very interesting article!!!! thanks for posting. I could not yet answer that question without really digging deep and researching this topic.

maybe I can provide an answer in the future

I can say this

the masses of people are ignorant and this ignorance has allowed their beliefs and values to be formed NOT by them but by society at large

the media, government, outside influences

so how can such an ignorant people make a rational decision about creating a life and it's consequences in this "I want it now" society

I say this because I have wanted kids my whole life but realize how difficult it would be to not be overwhelmed with all the indoctrination that goes on in public schools

this collective hive so to speak.

so I had to explore outside the U.S. and look for a simpler way of things and at an age of 50 I have 2 kids

don't get me wrong.. its still a challenge

but at least I dont have facebook, twitter and youtube to compete with

Eddie

PS I will add that I have dedicated my life to teach my kids the art of independent thinking, looking within themselves for solutions instead of outside themselves.

the basics of money management.

to love and be able to receive love

life is NOT fair!!!

and to always be a student of life because we never stop learning!!!

The idea of "not planning to have a kid" is an interesting one! I should try that sometime! "I never PLANNED to lose that money in the stockmarket, so I should get it back!" After all, there have been times I lost money because of a freak condition.

In theory, the chances of getting pregnant are about 16%(OK, OK! At some points, the people might not be interested, and chances increase to like 32%), assuming both people are healthy and intact. vasectomies and tubal ligation are not even 100% successful. "Birth control pills" are NOT birth control pills. They are hormone pills to throw off a healthy cycle and prevent ovulation or attachment(or whatever it is called). If the cycle isn't healthy, they could actually HELP a pregnancy occur. And CONDOMS? If they are IN GOOD CONDITION, they reduce the chances to like 3%/6%. Exposure to intense heat(like storing in a pocket), cold, or pressure(like storing in a pocket) could reduce the efficiency MORE! And then there is HOW it is used! That could actually INCREASE the chances of pregnancy.

If the parents let an erratic machine go around, and it injured someone, or killed someone, they WOULD be on the hook! HECK, a crack in the pavement could be EXPENSIVE! How is a child different? There should be SOME punishment. If a child threw a baseball and broke a neighbors window, the parents may have to pay.

Steve

No, they aren't.

I'm not sure what it means to be morally responsible. For what it's worth here's what Wiki has to say:

Moral responsibility is the status of morally deserving praise, blame, reward, or punishment for an act or omission, in accordance with one's moral obligations.

More ambiguity. What are moral obligations? I know what they were and are in my family but as I look around it would seem that many others don't agree. In fact, many people in our society don't seem to know the simple difference between right and wrong. I was taught that stealing is wrong. Lying is wrong, morally and otherwise as lies can seriously mislead and hurt others.

But look around. How many discussions are there on the main board and others about these things? Thousands. Last week someone asked whether it was okay to claim he'd sold thousands of ebooks to boost sales when he hadn't sold a single one. Then there are people who will buy an info product, get an instant refund and then upload it to a torrent site. Some of them think they're sharing by doing this.

According to what I learned, I'd have to say that parents are or should be morally responsible for their kids. But what if they're not? Since the word morality is pretty subjective it would be impossible to try and impose penalties for a lack of something open to so many interpretations.

I've seen good people raise kids and have one or more turn out very twisted. There are a couple of characters like this in my own family. They were exposed to all of the same rewards and punishment as the rest growing up and it didn't matter much.

I think society has a huge role in this. I rarely watch TV but I watched a reality show the other night. People are encouraged to sabotage others for personal gain. Okay, it's just a TV show. But there are dozens of shows like this and millions of people watching. In time people become conditioned to feel that being devious is cool.

And it's not just reality TV. Celebrities, athletes, politicians and others also set terrible examples and people are constantly bombarded with this stuff. The closer we drift to the edge in the free-for-all orgy we've become, the more deviates we're going to have. Maybe we're all partially responsible.

I've known a preachers kid that was an addict, I've known another guy that was an addict that's now clean & became a preacher. Both had great parents.

Everyone makes their own decisions in life, your responsible for yourself. The best you can do as a parent is, the best you can do & not an ounce more.

Be your best self.

This is a question that can't be answered until we can nail down the esoteric nature of morality itself. If it were that easy, we wouldn't have philosophy classes in colleges that study the nature of ethics. What is moral to one group is not to another.

Yet ethics do have a few sustaining factors that most humans agree on. It's not ethical to steal, cheat, lie, murder, etc. If you are going to have children - it's your obligation to raise them to conform to the ethical norms of the society in which they will live. The society will break down completely without norms. Period.

Kids do dumb things no matter how well you teach them.......but they won't usually do completely heinous things when taught respect and compassion for others. If they do, their misdeeds will be short lived if the kid is anywhere near normal because their consciences will hurt.

Point - you can't control 100% what another person does unless they are chained and watched 24/7. If you have raised your child to be a peaceful human being and he goes out and kills someone........how can you be responsible for that action?

Point - if you feel some things are completely immoral, such as homosexuality - and teach that kid that homosexuals are bad, you maybe feel you have raised them the best that you can. However, teaching that dogma my result in a child that will murder over it. If you raise the kid believing ANY dogma is worth murdering over, what happens when they grow up and conform to a dogma that your teaching didn't cover? You have acted morally in your own world view, but have created a killer. So are you responsible? Sure you are. You've not taught your kid morality or ethics, you've taught them to be radically dogmatic. Until people understand the difference between teaching a kid to be dogmatic and teaching them to live peaceably within their own society, you will have dysfunctional kids.

What I see from this argumentation is that, tied to the question of responsibility, is the question if everyone and anyone should be allowed to breed. We're populated to a point we can't allow as much autonomy as we used to because too many varied moral codes are attempting to co-exist and many people are not educated enough to know the difference between teaching ethical thought and dogma.

MissTerraK,

When I was a kid, I was ASTOUNDED at how STUPID some "adults" could be. Were they from another planet? Did they all get some sort of dementia? Did they somehow forget a HUGE part of their lives? Did they simply lose 70-80 IQ points? ASTOUNDING!

To claim that an "adult" somehow doesn't have an idea of how hard it must be to raise a kid? WOW! OBVIOUSLY, humans are born as one of the most dependent species on the planet.

The average baby isn't expected to even make a useful sound until like 6 months, or walk until like 11months, or really talk until about 24 months. And there are a lot of things that are social constructs that must be learned. And frequent eating, etc... Many shows on TV show new parents as having little time for other things.

And there is school! Even if you don't care about education, there is registration, transportation, getting ready for school, etc.... And there are events and friends you have to deal with. And that is if you DON'T care!

And all of this is expected to be done for at least about 19 years.(Counting pregnancy, etc...) AND, with current laws and all, in the US, that 19 years is more like 26 years!

If things were codified, there would likely be fewer kids, and certainly more care, and people would be better prepared, etc... I have a home, and am insured to the hilt! Part of that is that I don't want to have to pay for any kids hurt on my property. Luckily, so far, none have been hurt. If they are, I will happily take care of it. I HOPE that others will reciprocate accordingly.

Steve

Oh, the mind-games we play with simple words.

This type of question sets up a manipulative situation in that it attempts to force a quick, definitive yes or no response. Though the words are simple, they hide the truth of very complex underpinnings.

A reasonable yes or no response can not be arrived at without several additional questions being brought to bear.

Are parents morally responsible for their children? In the case of Adam Lanza, no.

Joe Mobley