Crooks.net

The Lincoln-Douglas debates really could have been spiced up had Twitter existed in the 19th century.

@abelincoln: “LOL u are slippery like the sepia cloud of a cuttlefish”
@theSenatorDouglas: “wat?”

The Last Psychiatrist has a related take on this topic—while not directly on helicopter parenting, he does talk about the need that parents have to publicly demonstrate their worth using their kids as proxies, and how the media feeds the predator fear as a means of getting people to turn over more power to the state. Can’t put the link in to the post, but you can find it. Here’s a relevant clip:

First, because in America you NEVER yell at another person’s kid— or praise them, or hug them, or ask them what their favorite Harry Potter movie is; every adult-child interaction is immediately interpreted on a continuum of pedophilia or abuse. (Why are we so worried about child abuse nowadays? Because the truth is deliberately obfuscated. CNN will tell you how many pedophile priests there are, but not emphasize that they molested 20+ years ago, and that the incidence of priest-abusers now is tiny. Nor do they let on that they know that the person who molested you almost certainly has the same last name as you, BORING, here’s a modified narrative about a girl we’ll call Elizabeth Smart. See? It was a crazy person, and they’re everywhere. The state encourages the media promotion of boogeymen— in the 1970s serial killers, today pedophiles and etc— because it makes the populace demand increased state control in their private lives, which is the precisely the natural single goal of any state. The state and the media effect this encouragement by pretending not to know of the boogeyman’s nonexistence. Says a Congressman: “you mean there’s an epidemic of baby rapers out there? Wait— did you say rapers or rappers? The hell you say! Elect me, I’ll make sure we buy thousands of cameras from my supporters at Nikon to monitor our streets, we’re going to need tech support so let’s bring in Google….” None of this is consciously planned in advance, it doesn’t have to be, it is in the nature of things: individual selfishness always finds a way, and that way leads to indoor recess for all of us.)

Good job Steven. You certainly thought it through and stated many true and valuable points. Being a parent in 2011 is so much harder than it was in 1966 when you were born. We just didn’t have to worry about so many “bad” people. We were much more trusting and had confidence in our children.

I have to brag and say my 2 sons turned out GREAT and both spent nights at friends houses. Now whether or not it was all due to “luck” or their good decisions, I don’t honestly know.

The media today keeps us all frightened. I know it is hard to temper fright of the unknown with allowing and encouraging our children to have a normal life. However – each time you become a parent you have many problems to deal with. No matter if it was 1900 or 2050.

Just try and make your decisions based on your child’s abilities and the current situation. It will absolutely not work to make blanket decisions for one and all. It also will not work to make every decision based on fear. And with cell phones, many problems are taken care of by a short conversation.

The thing about being a good parent….is that you never really know if you were or not until you see how your children turn out. All we can do is our best in every situation and then you and your children will survive each other and you can look back and feel good about what you did.

Good luck to all of you!

Ann Reed