The Licence to Parent Files

I read this story as well. I myself have wondered if having a license to be a parent would do any good. Persoanlly I dont think it would. I have a person in my life that shouldnt be a parent at all. She is though but doesnt prove it. I became pregnant at 17 and had my first at 17. My 'baby' is now nearly 7 years old and I have 3 more other children. It's horriable that a parent could ever do this to a child. So helpless and defenseless! It's just too bad that a license wouldnt stop the wrong people from having babies. I enjoy playing Farmville but my children will always come first and I only play when they are in bed so I am not too distracted by the computer to help them or play with them. It's such a very sad and tragic story.

In my home country a person is allowed to begin driving lessons in a car at 17 years old. He or she must have a provisional driving license and then take a theory test and hazard perception test. Then he or she will have to pass a practical driving test. So a person wouldn't be able to drive alone without having passed their practical driving test. A person teaching a person to drive must be over 21 years old and to have held a full driving license for 3 years. Many people take driving lessons with an approved driving instructor. Social services have very strict rules saying who can or can't adopt a child. However any lady is able to get pregnant if she is medically able to. Pregnancy could happen to any lady even those using a method of birth control. A fifteen year old female could get pregnant. If there was a license to parent it would be challenging to police. I was shocked to hear that the 22 year old lady killed her 3 month old baby by shaking him. When a baby is crying he or she needs loving support. It might be give the baby a drink of milk, change the babies diaper or just hold the baby gently. Babies are fragile and shaking a baby is very dangerous. A young baby has a soft head and a weak neck. In my home country a law case takes place in a court of law in front of a judge and a jury. The jury have to make a choice of guilty or not guilty from their findings during the case. I think it is wrong that Alexandra V Tobias won't have a jury trial. The judge is likely to give her a sentence of more than 25 years. No one else will have a say. That is one sided and not at all right. I believe having a jury means a lot of consideration has been given by lots of different people.

Unfortunately, not having a license does not keep people from driving cars, and will not stop people from having babies. Some very fine school curriculum exists, such as "Baby Wait Awhile" and other experience based training, but with all the budget cuts who is to say that they will continue. I think the training we need should be part of the curriculum every year from about ten up. Especially with puberty happening at younger and younger ages. Where I live, eleven year olds who would like to baby sit can take a class by the American Red Cross, but maybe all eleven year olds should take it, and then another more progressive class each year. Include the training with the programmed baby dolls and perhaps by the time kids are old enough to start becoming parents they will think twice, protect themselves and do right by their children.

Hi Crafty Corner, I agree that there are a lot of parents out there that are horrible and probably should never have become parents to begin with. Still, until a person is actually a parent, how do we judge this? I don't think we could in all fairness. I was young and a partier when I first became pregnant. I'm pretty sure that no one would have taken one look at my lifestyle and thought, "yes, you will be a good parent. License granted." It was while carrying my first daughter that I calmed down, grew up a lot and became totally dedicated to her. Ive seen this happen with so many young parents. Then there are others who show no signs of possibly being bad parents and they turn out to be terrible. What I have seen all too often is once a parent proves themselves to be abusive or worse, they get their kids removed from the home and then go on to have more and keep them until something happens.

wow! that is horrible! how can she do that? and only for farmville? was she literally sane?

Generally I'd agree with you, but I'm thinking that some smart bureaucrat somewhere would bring genetics into the equation very soon (if your genes aren't right, then you can't get the license to have a baby... and we all know that can't go well). There's also the very tricky issue about how to prevent people from becoming parents... the options freak me out. If it were up to me, I'd introduce mandatory parenting classes in schools, rather early, for children aged 12 to 16. To teach them how to change diapers, how to cook for a baby, how to identify symptoms of disease, what's the cost of caring for a child, and so on.

I have long said they ought to make people take parenting classes and get a license to have children. any little bimbette that can't keep her knees together can get pregnant and DON'T even START with me on the GUYS! Men should be forced to holster those things until they have passed a responsibility test - preferably AFTER about 10 years of study!

How weird, I just heard this comment on TV and have been thinking about it. As much as I agree with it, I'd be worried about who will be decided who gets these licenses. And if we do will there be any personality differences in people?