Tossing It Out

Monday, March 4, 2013

Is It Too Easy To Have Kids?

Funny Children Safety Sign (Photo credits: www.smartsign.com)

        Shortly after the Sandy Hook school shooting, the furor arose to ban guns or, at the very least, assault weapons. In my post Should We Ban (Insert Topic Here), I suggested that before the nation takes an overly reactionary response in attacking the Second Amendment rights laid out by the founding fathers of the United States, we might want to consider some other things that could be contributing factors to violent incidents such as happened in places like Newtown, CT and some of the other incidents of violence. Today I continue with my exploration of this topic.

Is It Too Easy To Have Kids?

         What a silly question! Of course it's too easy. Kids are often the by-product of doing what feels good or trying to fulfill another persons desires in order to please them. It can be difficult to argue with passions and when one thing happens then other things may be the result--kids. In some cases people are ready to accept the consequences of their actions and turn out to be decent parents. In many other cases the outcome is not so good.

       Sex education classes can help prevent unwanted pregnancies. but obviously they've not overly effective. Child-rearing classes also provide some decent information, but not every young parent is ready to face the reality if the event actually happens to them. Abortion or adoption are options but who is the one opting for this really most concerned about?   Unexpected pregnancy for unwed mothers is rarely good news for those who are not ready or willing to take on the responsibility.

There are certainly many who find themselves taken by surprise with becoming a parent, making the best of the situation to do the right thing and become decent parents.   However there are also far too many who become very bad parents or merely bring children into the world to mostly fend for themselves or become the victims of bad parenting.

         So what's the connection with violence whether by guns or some other means?    Anger.   Unwanted children who are unsupervised and raised in chaotic surroundings are more often than not going to become angry young adults with bad attitudes.

         Most violence is not the hyper-sensationalized events like Sandy Hook or Aurora, but that which occurs on the urban streets and in presumably peaceful suburbs of the U.S.   I don't have any statistics to back up my claim, but I'd say it's a good bet that many perpetrators of violent activity come from backgrounds where poor parenting was to blame in a big way.

        Is there an easy answer to all of this?   I can think of an answer that is obvious to me and some of you, but perhaps not so easy to accomplish.    I won't name this solution until my last installment in this series, but many of you know already.

        Instead, I'll toss out a few ideas that you can respond to or you can suggest some of your own.   What about:

More enforcement on the Dads--this is being done to some extent, but maybe we need to get tougher.
Better supervised support of the unwed mothers with less enabling handouts and more stringent accountability for future actions.
Get parents of the new parents more involved and make them more responsible for what their kids are doing.
Forced sterilization of repeat offenders male and female who are bringing more taxpayer supported angry children into the world.

What do you think is the solution here? Do you think there is a problem? Do you think the anger and hurt instilled into unwanted offspring can often result in violent behavior?