Listen to the Children

Children, we are told, want more and better sex education. That is presented as an irrefutable argument by 'progressive' campaigners.

And yet, in every survey ever, children do not want their parents to divorce. Do we hear the 'progressives' campaigning to restrict or outlaw divorce?

Could it be that people listen to - and value - children's views only when they coincide with their pre-determined agenda?

There's another problem too: children - like the rest of us - tend to want things that will make them feel good in the short term. But a parent who succumbs to a child's request for chocolate instead of sandwiches for their packed lunch is not a good parent. We need to listen to children, but to make adult decisions.

A toddler may really believe that sweet food is better for him than savoury: our job is to educate his understanding to conform to reality. A teenager may really believe that her crush on her boyfriend is love. Our job remains the same. A fourteen-year old 'coming out' may really believe he is mature and understands himself. Our job remains the same. A young woman facing an unplanned pregnancy may really believe that an abortion is her right, that her unborn child is no more than a part of her body that can be removed, and that will make everything the same as it was before. Our job remains the same.

Otherwise we end up with adults who really believe that what they want (at a moment in time) and what is right are the same thing - a common version of that being that a divorce is the best thing for their children, despite all the evidence to the contrary.