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Parents Down, Predators Up

Domenick J. Maglio, Ph.D. Neo-Traditionalist

Government has chipped away at the power and rights of traditional parenthood. The courts have decided that parents have no legal right to be notified of their teenager's decision to have an abortion. The state of Massachusetts is in a serious debate about outlawing any spanking even administered in the home. Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Hungary and Israel have outlawed spanking of children. The power of parents is being eroded every day in our nation and others.

The attacks on the foundation of the family, the most important institution in our society, is relentless. On July 5th, 2005, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a lawsuit challenging a 2004 Virginia law requiring parental supervision at a nudist camp for teens.

The appellate court overturning this law would mean eleven to eighteen year-old youngsters would be allowed to attend a nudist camp with or without their parents. This would leave some children without any family members to introduce them into the nudist philosophy, etiquette and overall lifestyle. Nudism can be an innocuous way of life in the right setting with like-minded, stable and spiritually healthy people.

A nudist camp exposure for teenagers without screening of nudist members, staff and parental supervision of one's own children can be a risky affair. The lack of supervision and screening is compounded in our transient society. Children are more vulnerable without the watchful eyes of their loved ones. Yet some modern parents insist that children from age eleven to eighteen without adult assistance can handle peer pressure and temptation that exists in these circumstances. According to nudist advocacy groups, the prevalent body image feelings of inadequacy and unsettled sexual orientation issues would be non-existent in the natural nudist setting.

Modern parents often simplistically think any lust issues on the part of the staff, adults and younger campers would easily be handled by their "sophisticated teenagers." These same naive thinking adults simultaneously take their preteens to rock concerts and provide their teenagers rented hotel rooms to have alcohol parties with minimal to no chaperoning. It appears many of these parents are living their lives through their children. They do not realize nor acknowledge the children's lack of emotional maturity puts their youngsters in jeopardy.

It is easier for modern parents to assign unrealistic trust in their children's decision- making ability than to restrict them for their own safety. Saying "no" to one's s child creates friction and prevents the number one goal of modern parents: To be friends with their children.

As our culture establishes more children's rights through the legal system, parent's rights automatically decrease. Parents still have to maintain their legal responsibility for the health, safety, education and financial well being of their children. In other words, parents have fewer rights, less power but still have all the responsibility of raising their child.

Limiting the rights of parents while demanding responsible actions is like making a juggler tie his hands while attempting to keep all the balls in the air. It is virtually impossible.

As society withdraws the rights and power from parents, parents are responding by removing themselves from a close intimate relationship with their family. This increasing gap between the natural involvement of parents as protectors of their offspring is an invitation for predators and pending disaster for our civilization.