Watch Your Own Kids!

I am always working to develop skills that will help me to maximize my potential as an assistant dictator. Since amiability is a useful quality in any administrative assistant, I thought it would be a good idea to practice being responsive by posting my first article on request.

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce a new feature to The Rabenstranger. If you direct your attention the right side bar you will see that there is now a large link allowing you to “Ask Rabenstrange.” I will answer almost any email regardless of subject. Please be aware that I may post your question and its response on The Rabenstranger's main page. Excessively rude or crude inquiries will be ignored.

Mama and Me of Crafty Girls asked me to provide my opinion on a recent CNN news story about Georgia parents protesting Governor Sonny Perdue asking for the closure of government schools for two days as a measure to help alleviate possible fuel shortages. (Read Full Article Here)

Apparently, Governor Perdue's decision put a lot of families in a tough spot because they use the public schools as a sort of tax-payer funded baby sitter.

I don't have near enough knowledge of Georgia or the events leading up to Hurricane Rita to critique the Governor's judgment but it seems on the surface to be a relatively reasonable request of parents to ask them to take care of their own kids for a couple days. I don't know how much keeping kids out of school would affect the states fuel supply but if there was a chance that it might help, changing the school schedule a little bit is a small price to pay.

Of course in hindsight we see that Rita wasn't nearly as devastating as she was predicted to be. Saving gas turned out to be a non-issue. Still that didn't eliminate the Governor's need to be prepared.

Anyhow, it seems to me that the main issue contained in the story is that parents don't seem to be taking responsibility for their own children. Randy David, an Atlanta mother is quoted in the CNN story as saying "It's certainly caused a lot of problems for working parents today, and it causes problems for these kids who need to be learning and not just hanging out, watching the Cartoon Network at home." I find her words revealing and sad. If her children need to learn what is stopping her from turning off Scooby Doo, getting out the books and teaching them herself.

I know that two days can be an eternity when you're trying to pound concepts into minds not your own. I have a little personal experience with this. As the oldest of six kids I am often called on to babysit and sometimes tutor my siblings. I was also an economics tutor and coached a special needs student at my college. It might not always easy but if a punk eighteen year old can do it, teaching one's own children shouldn't be beyond the capacity of today's parents.

People need to be less dependent on their government. If you look through out history you will find that the only things that governments have ever been good at are confiscating money, killing people and slipping the bounds that citizens try to place on them.