 Neglect? I believe so.
Scarlett MacKeown: tragedy and shame.
Posted by Henry Cave Devine at 16:51 on 07 Mar 2008
"I was OK with that"... according to Fiona MacKeown speaking about her daughter's sex life.
Isn't this one of those wonderful, breezy, totally irresponsible statements of today's parenting generation. If we think that we were hurt by Latin exams, lace-up shoes, a few good whacks and some rather burdensome rules and accountability, just look at what the results of the opposite are: booze/drugs run wild, zero substantive classroom education, no job skills, poor diets, serious body fat, tatoos/piercings, etc. Cocaine and Ecstasy use are treated as a "phase" for too many people: we minimize the truly dangerous.
While being a good parent should not be about hiding behind absurd petty rules and traditions, it is about saying "no", "you are not old enough for that", "when you are older and living on your own and not under my roof", "drugs are dangerous and at best debilitating", "relationship first and then sex"... and on and on: rules and values that give some of us a better life because of useful and necessary boundaries. And work by and accountability back to the parent: moments where the child will say "I hate you" ... and maybe even mean it... an even painful indifference.
Too much containment hurts; too much freedom and lack of accountabilty cheats, destroys and in the case of Scarlett, allows for very risky conditions leading possibly to worse. There is no going back on losing one's virginity and rarely is there going back on death. And the term "sexually active" is so sterile and inhuman: makes an important act sound like taking practice shots at the net: shabby, cheapening, pitiful... just like most language promulgated by counsellors and the government: meant to reduce us all to the lowest common denomonator and not a standard we can reasonably aspire to and certainly live with.
Government is delighted that the Baby Boomers are so willing to accept less responsibility and accountability and to live with lower standards: it means Labour ends up owning the country lock, stock and barrel and spirit, soul and wallet. And we have no one to blame but ourselves. | 
Wherever we go, every one knows
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