Livre d'Or

To what extent should parents get to choose what is right for their children and where do you draw the line and call it child abuse?

This is one of the biggest moral quandries as far as I am concerned, and also very good to discuss with children, because you never know if some of them need to hear which actions are abusive (you can discuss the borders of emotional abuse, which is especially tricky).

This is hard for me, because I feel I should be able to raise a child in non-traditional ways even if society doesn't approve. Such as deliberately having a child out of wedlock. I feel that homosexual couples should be able to raise children.

But I worry about people who make very scary decisions, like Christian Scientists or Scientologists who do not believe in medical care, but believe that faith and prayer is sufficient for all healing. If the child has appendicitis and they deny surgery, should they be allowed to? At what age does it become the child's right to choose? What level of education should the parents have to give the child so the child has some vague hope of making an informed decision?

I believe that adults should be allowed to take some risks and make mistakes. I wouldn't force an adult to stop cooking in a manner I felt was unsafe if I mentioned my thoughts and they said they felt they knew what they were doing. I would with a child. To what extent is it okay to force children to do or not do things, and where does it cross a line?

These are very hard issues, and likely quite relevant to children.