Should licenses for parenthood be mandatory & thus forcibly implemented as there

1. 82

   gmwilliamsposted 8 years ago

   Should licenses for parenthood be mandatory & thus forcibly implemented as there are far too
   
   many people who DON'T have the emotional, intellectual/educational, mental, financial, &/psychological qualifications to be parents?
   
   

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2. 83

   tamarawilhiteposted 8 years ago

   Instead of a parenting license, where you could have people discriminated against because of their race or political beliefs, require long term contraception for those on welfare or disability.
   If you need SNAP to feed your family, if you need housing assistance, every woman and teenaged girl in the household must have a Norplant or get a Depo Provera injection every three months. If you get a job and off all welfare or marry a man who supports you, you get the implant out if you want.
   This puts a financial floor on "parenting" without taking away anyone's rights, because if you can't support yourself, you cannot be allowed to have more children the taxpayers have to support.

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      gmwilliamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      EXACTLY!  Great answer indeed.  However, there are people not on welfare who obviously shouldn't be parents in the first place.  Many of our societal/socioeconomic problems would be SOLVED if mandatory licenses for parenthood were implemented.

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3. 86

   Austinstarposted 8 years ago

   No, but I do think there should be WAY more educational opportunities for parental guidance.
   Free education for people who WANT to be parents should be plentiful and readily available.
   And just the opposite is true. Education for those that do NOT want to be parents should be in every school and news stand.

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4. 77

   Express10posted 8 years ago

   First off I have to say that I completely agree with this sentiment. You must see or be forced to engage with some of these folks and have genuine concern for their children. But even I would say no because there truly are better ways to accomplish the goal of getting the less & ill prepared to not have children. It all begins in the home but when "home" is subpar as far as parenting is concerned there are many other ways to reach people of all ages who may create children they cannot care for and raise to reach even 70% of their potential.
   
   One way is to show people of all ages the consequences of not getting an education beyond high school, the many and difficult responsibilities of being a parent, make them well acquainted with the less than positive aspects of pregnancy and childbirth, the true costs of each child and raising them through the age of 18 - 21.
   
   As with many things, knowledge is power. If armed with clear details of the negative aspects of becoming a parent while not financially, emotionally, and physically prepared, more people of all ages would choose to wait or avoid parenthood altogether. Heck, a campaign against parenthood not unlike the shocking commercials against cigarettes could actually work to show people the aspects of parenting that many folks gloss over, omit, or refuse to speak of.
   
   On another note, I find it strange and horribly ironic that many of the "bad parents" are indifferent to or actually encourage their offspring to follow in their footsteps to yet another generation's detriment. Ugh!

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      Austinstarposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know the stats, but it seems more and more as if young girls, just walk off and abandon their newborns. In the news today, one girl gave birth in a garage, then left it there to die. She is on trial for murder I believe.

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      Express10posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      If one is going to bear the child, why not give it up for adoption? The case you speak of screams of selfishness & fear by the young parent. Children having children, so sad and so preventable.

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   3. 86

      Austinstarposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      These young girls do not think about their options, including adoption. And adoptions are hard on children and parents. They are also harder and harder to arrange.

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      Express10posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      You are so right. Another problem is that many given up for adoption will age out of the system ill prepared for the world & some are targets for identity thieves on top of it all.

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5. 0

   savvydatingposted 8 years ago

   No. That reeks of Communist China and Nazi Germany. Some of the best people have come out of poor homes. Even if such a law were implemented, that would only give lawyers more work, which means those wealthy people who fail the "parental test" would sue and win, but they'd still make horrible parents. The whole thing would blow up in our faces.
   A nation cannot control people as if they are cattle. That's just not cool. Rather, education about parenting, for junior high school students and beyond, might very well help to prepare the next generations of parents to be more understanding of their children and of their roles as parents.

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      gmwilliamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Good, insightful answer, thanks.

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6. 49

   bradmasterOCcalposted 8 years ago

   I think that grade school teachers need to have a separate license that gives them knowledge of how not to mess the minds of their students.
   As for parents in general, we are alleged to be the most intelligent species, but the sex act can be accomplished by most of the population.
   
   The animal kingdom abides by the survival of the fittest, and that means that the best genes procreate. While humans are humanitarians that pass on bad genes all the time.
   
   Who can decided what good parenting is today? We probably can detect bad parenting, or no parenting, but that is not objective. Licensing needs objectivity, and parenting is subjectively human. The two are like oil and water, they don't mix well.
   
   Bad teachers are licensed to teach, and it takes a miracle to remove them from teaching,even when it is patently obvious they are bad teachers. Teachers are in the public, while parents are mostly private, so how do you benefit the children by invading privacy?
   
   There are 4 social workers being charge with criminal child abuse today in CA. Licensing, it really doesn't work.

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7. 51

   Norine Williamsposted 7 years ago

   Let me tell you a "true" story happening in my family "now!"  My granddaughter was the only grandchild in my geographical setting for a long time!  We sent her to private school until the age of 9 when she entered the public school environment.  She was so advanced, we have to get material above her grade level to maintain her interest in school.  However, upon entering high school she (being a teenager) began rebelling and found no interest in attending school saying it was a waste of time!  She reluctantly continued her education but grades fell as she found interest in 'extra curriculum activities' and became pregnant at the age of 15!
   
   Of course, I'm always the last to find out of problems in the family but am the one who has to 'straighten them out!'  By the time I found out that she was pregnant (although I had an unction), she was in her fifth month. I told her that since she had taken action of a woman, she's going to have to accept responsibility as a woman and enrolled her in GED classes, driving classes, and parenting classes!  Her parental grandmother owns a daycare and she had helped her at the daycare since age 12 which afforded her the opportunity to take care of the child "physically."  However, I believe a child should be a "holistic" person with development in all areas and is why I enrolled her in parenting class which afforded her not only physical but emotional and psychological knowledge of child development.
   
   She graduated from parenting class, passed her driving course, and obtained her GED before passing her college entrance exam in which the administrator of the exam said she did better on the exam than most who were not eight months pregnant.  While there, we found her an apartment across the street from the university.  This was in June 2015 and in July 2015 (after the birth of my GG Baby) my granddaughter entered college in the Fall of 2015 as a Freshman with baby on hip!
   
   She is currently on the Dean's Honor Roll as a Junior in college (after this semester), and continues to remind me of things she's doing that she learned in parenting classes applying them to the rearing of my GG Baby!
   
   The classes were "free!"  Therefore, why not?  My family has benefited from such a program and my GG Baby is smart as a whip!  She's only 1 but can (sing) spell her name, sing the alphabet song, and is learning how to identify both numbers and alphabets! 
   
   I'm PROUD of both of them! My GG Baby was a blessing in disguise!

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