Government Parenting in Sweden

"There’s an old saying that once you reach the top, you can only go down.

For the nation of Sweden, however, reaching the top was only the beginning.

Sweden has long been regarded as a model nation, whose policies and laws are at the cutting-edge of international thinking on children’s rights. Sweden was the first nation to completely ban corporal punishment, the first to make sex education a mandatory feature of its educational curriculum, and the first to offer working parents free child-care for all children between the ages of 1 and 12. Thus, it should come as no surprise that on June 29, 1990, Sweden became the ninth nation in the world - and the first industrialized Western country - to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child." Read the rest of the article here.

Wow. I just read the article on Sweden that Mother Dear linked to, and am aghast at the amount of government control over children...and parents. From what I've read, apparently parents have pretty much zero control over their children. The kids run the show. No spanking, time outs, nothing. Reminds you of the screaming kids and negotiating parents in the grocery store, doesn't it?

And then, there is the sex education. It is a mandatory subject that has to be taught to all children being schooled. So, does that mean it would be taught to kindergartners?? Now, obviously it would be toned down some, but still.

What's wrong with free child-care you ask? Well, lets take a look and see. When you drop your child off at day care or preschool, what are you doing? You are abdicating your parental role for the time being. The Bible says that parents are supposed to train up a child, not some government-educated day care teacher. And besides, how do you know what that teacher - and the other "students" - is teaching your child? You don't. Not until your child has already learned it, that is. So, free child-care is wrong because it is encouraging mothers to forfeit their God-given duty. Period.

Would you like to know the saddest thing about all of this? Children are unmistakeably being brought up lacking discipline, loosing their innocence much earlier than they should and are being taught by their peers and a government-educated person from the very beginning.

You know, I wish I could say that I am happy to be living in the United States for the freedom we have, but chances are things are going to get worse. The good news is that God has commanded us to parent our children, and He will provide the way. All we have to do is trust in Him.