Is Brash ready to be sued for neglect?
Opposition leader Don Brash’s latest comments have angered parents. “If Dr. Brash expects to punish parents for
supposedly doing a poor job then he had better be prepared to defend some legal actions from parents suing the
government for neglect, because someone is bound to test that case!” said Parent.org spokesperson, Steve Gore.
The recently formed lobby group is concerned at the lack of understanding at the political level of the realities of
modern day parenting. We have put parents under pressure for years and the cracks are beginning to show. Punishing them
is not going to improve the outcomes – it will simply throw another layer of wallpaper up.
“Our politicians have spent the last twenty years creating a success focused environment for business and ensuring we
have a skilled workforce while ignoring the skills needs of parents and supporting only parenting failure,” said Mr.
Gore. “Suddenly Dr. Brash expects all our parents to demonstrate great skills or else pay for their ignorance with fines
and community service!
When are our politicians going to realise that if we create an environment of success around parents these problems Dr.
Brash is concerned about are much less likely to happen.
The new lobbying group was outraged by Dr. Brash’s suggestion that the parents of errant teenagers should be forced to
attend parenting classes.
“Parent education is a valuable, positive thing. It should not be used as some sort of punishment. It sends completely
the wrong message to all parents – that they should associate skills and education with failure rather than the route to
success. We don't send the CEO's of bankrupt businesses to business school as punishment - why should we take that
approach with parents?
By the time a child is a teenager the relationship between them and their parents is very established – for better or
worse. A few parenting classes at that point may do more damage than good. Good parenting is a long, slow repetitious
process.” said Mr. Gore. “A wise government would understand that and invest in parenting for the duration of childhood
– not wait until things go wrong, then throw a few dollars at the problem to absolve itself of any responsibility.
Parents are the starting point of the knowledge economy. The modest cost of creating an environment that encourages and
resources them to succeed would be returned to society a hundred times over when more and more parents raise children
capable of carrying our country forward.
Parent.org is a new lobby group dedicated to increasing governments understanding of benefits a success focused
parenting environment may offer. They can be found at http://www.parent.org.nz