Vivat Libertas

So parents get a lot of shtick sometimes, from the criticisms of resentful offspring to the sneering attitude that the vast majority of the population are more than capable of fertilising an egg. And I've got to admit that a lot of the criticisms are justified: parents make a lot of mistakes, mistakes that have lifelong impacts on their children. Parents can be selfish and irresponsible, often cruel. Parents can be ignorant, maybe wilfully so. Despite all that, I still want to praise parents. Sure, the vast majority of people can fertilise an egg and carry a pregnancy to term, but the actual business of raising a child - guiding a little human being through the world and making sure they come out as happy and well-adjusted at the end of it all as is humanly possible - is difficult. Right now I've got a seven-month-old niece. She's a charming little cutie pie and no matter what she does I'm her proud auntie, but all the same looking after her is difficult. I know; I...

So...I'm young - I'm in my teens. I'm not a parent and I don't plan to be. So why do I have the temerity to tell people how to rear their kids? Because the number of kids in care, on the streets, in prison, expelled from every school in the country and then some, and anything more you would care to think of, means that parents are doing something very, very wrong and that some kind of a guide is needed. It's not hard: what I've written here is based on my own experiences and on research which has been done. First things first. As a parent or a parent-to-be, you aren't just creating life, you are tasked with creating and raising a healthy human being. If you can't cope with this being disagreeing with you or disrupting your schedules, maybe you should think again about bringing life into this world. A child is for eternity, not just for nine months and a bit. If you're going to abuse your kid or stay with an abuser, you've already forfeited your...