Yesterday Jason came home and told me about something that he heard on the news and my jaw dropped to the ground! In Quebec there was a 12 year old girl who took her father to court and won because he grounded her from her year end school trip. (see here for the news story: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080619.wcurfew19/BNStory/lifeFamily/home ) I personally find this completely and utterly insane and ridiculous! I cannot believe that a judge ruled in favor of the 12 year old girl! I cannot believe that the judge found the father's punishment to be excessive! Excessive? She was posting pictures of herself in outifts that her father felt were inappropriate on an internet dating site! And she also did it at a friends house after she was baned from the internet at her own house! Why would we want a father to actually be involved in his daughter's life and try to protect her from internet predators!?! No we wouldn't want that! She's 12 years old for pete's sake! Why is she posting pictures on a dating website? She has no possible way of understanding the ramifications o0f posting pictures like that on the internet. There are sick people out there who pose as kids and are really adults who just want to prey on them. And she would have no concept of how to judge that! The lawyer representing the girl stated that the weekend camping trip is a unique once in a life time event and since she had already been banned from the internet that that was punishment enough. Since when is a school camping trip a right? Last time I checked you needed paretnal permission to go on any school trip and since it's a graduation trip that would seem like a privilege type trip. This whole thing has basically shown this girl that she doesn't have to listen to a single thing her father or anyone in authority says! (Her father has sole custody of her so by court law he is the one who is to make the decisions for her) Never mind what it says to other kids and their parents as well. "I don't like what you have said mom or dad so I am going to take you to court"
Then also this week there was this story on the CBC website about how our government senators have passed a bill (Bill S-209) that will basically make it a criminal offence to as a parent spank your child to discipline them. (see here for that article: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/19/spanking-bill.html ) Make me want to barf! I can use force in very specific situations where my child is about to do something dangerous that could immediatley harm them but other wise using spanking as a regular part of discipling my child is unacceptable. Okay before I go to far off I want to just say this. I am in no way condoning the use of spanking as the only form of discipline. I think that spanking in excess is bad. I also think that spanking out of anger or using anything but your hand open for maybe one or two taps on the butt is in excess. I am not talking here about someone who beats on their child. That is wrong and should be punished by the law. What I have issue with is that if I choose to spank Logan for acts of out and out disobedience (I tell him to do somthing he says no, I give him a warning and he still says no, then I give him antoher warning but this time tell him I will spank him and he still says no then spank on the butt and have a seat on the stairs for 2 minute time out!) and I am not abusing him, then who is the government to say that I cannot do this? To say that the occasional spanking is violence is absurd! I looked up the definition of reasonable (love dictionary.com!) There are two defintions of it that I will refer to. 1. Being within the bounds of common sense & 2. Not excessive or extreme; fair. This bill is proposing to eliminate section 43 of the Criminal Code which allows parents, teachers and caregivers to use reasonable force to discipline a child and correct their behaviour. Based on the above defintion of reasonable the occasional spank is just that reasonable force. Beating your kid and over spanking is not!
These are just two of many examples of late where it is becoming very aparhent that the government is overstepping it's bounds. They know better than the parents of the children how to take care of the kids. By allowing this we are in fact raising this generation to be disrespectful, disobedient and immoral.
Scary scary scary!
I saw both of those articles too. I think that they are overstepping their boundaries. I think in Canada Children's Aid Society is good at protecting abused kids, atleast once they have been made aware of it. It wasn't enough that people would no longer spank their kids in public out of fear of what would come their way. I am grateful that I never had too go there with Sam or David. But I believe that since they are well disciplined in general I never really have to worry about how they are going to behave when I am in public or at friend's house.
ReplyDeleteAs for the 12 year old girl taking her father to court, I agree...hogwash... The point is not whether we agree or not with the punishment. The point is that they overstep their bound by even allowing this case to go to court. It is absurd...completely absurd to even have heard this case. As far as permission to go on that trip. Her parents are divorced (not going to go into how that messes up family dynamics) and her mother probably signed the consent form giving her permission to go.
That is one area that Quebec is different from Ontario, it doesn't matter who has custotady, both parents have equal say in the decisions involving their children. That could be a double edge sword. As we have seen in this scenario, it was detrimental, in other case it may be benificial.