“Adults and children don’t belong to the same species?! Yikes!!”
– Stephen T.
From the archives: The original post was posted on 22nd May 1997
In response to this:
“I want children to feel safe and protected. Children need limits because it provides a web of safety for them. It is because of that safety that they feel secure enough to take risks. Limits aren’t there to stifle children…limits are there to liberate them. It’s just that ‘theories’ of Taking Children Seriously don’t allow ‘coercive’ for that kind of thinking.”
Someone showed how it is just as wrong to “limit” children as it is to “limit” women:
“I want women to feel safe and protected. Women need limits because it provides a web of safety for them. It is because of that safety that they feel secure enough to take risks. Limits aren’t there to stifle women…limits are there to liberate them. It’s just that ‘theories’ of Taking Women Seriously don’t allow ‘coercive’ for that kind of thinking.”
Another poster replied:
“Apples and Oranges.”
This is it, people. We have just witnessed the heart of the evil of conventional parenting, the ultimate (yet common) irrational “justification” for coercing children: Adults and children don’t belong to the same species. Yikes!!
See also:
- Keeping children safe without imprisoning them in the home
- Choosing to go to school or join the military
- The challenge of identifying blind spots
Stephen T., 1997, ‘Children as subhuman aliens’, https://takingchildrenseriously.com/children-as-subhuman-aliens