Stephanie Allen Crist

For some, it is a simple question and the answer is “yes.”

Out-of-control youth is not merely a nuisance problem, though that is the reason most people give for their unequivocal “yes.” Misbehaving children are most often nuisances, but that can quickly tip over into endangering of self and/or others. When children are forced to fend for themselves just to survive, society rarely likes the result. And yet we’ve built a society that puts kids–children–into those situations every single day.

When I ask, “Should parents control their children?” it is not a simple question.

We live in a world where parents SELL their children into slavery because they can. We live in a world where parents MARRY their children into slavery because they can. We live in a world where dictators round up children and force them to be soldiers because they can. We live in a world where countries confiscate their children and indoctrinate them to be used to the countries’ purposes because they can. We live in a world where countries indoctrinate children in their superiority because they can. We live in a world where parents USE their children as sex slaves or domestic slaves because they can. We live in a world where politicians claim all children are the property of the state and we live in a world where the American president says nearly the same thing with enthusiastic support.

And with backlash from parents claiming that children do not belong to the state, they belong to the parents.

We’re talking about CHILDREN.

Children are not property. They’re people. They’re small. They can be erratic. They are most definitely underdeveloped. They NEED care. They NEED guidance. They NEED love. They need these things because they are HUMAN BEINGS.

People are NOT property. People CANNOT BE property. Every single person in this entire world belongs to itself.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where people are treated like property every single day. We CHOOSE to live in a world where we ALLOW other human beings to be treated like property every single day.

I want to make a different choice. I choose to see every single person in this world as belonging only to themselves.

What choice will you make?