State as family is also about control

Reader comment on: The Left's War on Family

Submitted by Abby Schachter (United States), Jan 28, 2015 08:46

I agree with your analysis but given my current research for a book entitled "Captain Mommy vs Nanny State: Taking the Government out of Parenting" allow me to add that changing the definition of family isn't only about making it easier to take money from one group of families and give it to others, it is about control as well. Directing what children (in public schools) eat, what games they play, what behavior parents are allowed to encourage (staying inside rather than outside unsupervised), how babies should be fed (breastfeeding), where children should spend their early years (in state licensed daycare, rather than at home with a parent), etc. In all these ways, the state has decided that it knows better than individual parents and families what is best and heaven help the lone citizen who wants to do things differently and take their own family's values and priorities over and above the state's.

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