Answering a good question with an unfortunate answer

This post is an answer to a Human Events article by Kate O'Malley.

The complete article can be found here.

The post is titled: "Do Liberals Raise Their Kids This Way?"

My answer to this simple question is: YES.

Let me explain:

As a parent with a house full of children, I spend a great deal of time discussing consequences. Don’t wait to work on an important report until the night before it’s due? Expect your grade to reflect that. Want to keep computer privileges? Then log off when I tell you and don’t visit sites that you know are off limits. Want the freedom to be out with your friends? Don’t participate in behavior that will make me question that option. The concept of rules and consequences seems like a fairly simple parenting guideline.

Certainly life throws us tricky topics and not all is cut and dry. When President Clinton told impressionable young minds that oral sex was not actually sex, (never mind the dozens of STDs that can be transmitted, nor the impact on tender hearts and minds) it was hard to explain, “But the President said so mom!!”

First of all, I am proud of her for doing the job a parent should do. I have tried to raise my children to follow the rules also. By rules I mean " laws of this country" as well as being a respectable member of society.

I have spent a lot of time teaching my children how they should act. If they do not follow the guidelines I have provided, they have been punished. The first thing I have taught them is: they, alone, are responsible for their actions. I have heard too many people give excuses for their children's behaviour: he fell in with the wrong crowd, they made him do it, he felt he had to to fit in. Bulls**t. If he did something wrong, it was his fault.

The liberal parents I know do not feel the same way about raising their children as I do. The biggest problem that I can see is this statement: you are special ( damn Mr. Rogers). Too many parents treat there kids this way. No matter what the children do they try to come up with a reason why. I addressed these statements in the previous paragraph. In most cases they do not punish their kids at all.


Anyway, the article was dealing with the illegal immigration issue. It is a great article. Read it at the link above.