Govt agency wants the State to parent our kids

Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro has a vision for New Zealand 's Children. It is a vision where "every child in New Zealand is safe, nurtured, educated, healthy, and has hope for the future".

Sounds good. There's just one problem: It doesnt involve parents, it involves nurturing by governments and communities - ie: the state.

Kiro wants the state to take over the role of parenting our kids. In fact Kiro doesn't even mention parents as those who parent children are not described as parents any more, they are described as guardians or caregivers. However she does state that her strategy is "family focussed", its just that the parents don't have much of a say in her strategy. Perhaps the United Future-spawned Families Commission will have more say.

What Kiro wants is "named primary professionals" attached to each child to ensure that they get the right mix of primary services. It is the job of that professional to liaise with specialists to ensure that these primary services are provided. And what is the parents role in this, in terms of the decision making process, I hear you ask?

Um.....actually they don't have one. They have to make sure it is all paid for, that the child is fed, clothed, sheltered, educated, punished without smacking, but provided that their decisions fit in with the decisions made for them by these professionals and that the child's rights come before parental rights.

Its the biggest piece of child-centred BS I have ever seen. Next they will be asking all kids to wear bracelets around their ankles - and you know what, if this sort of strategy is implemented, once they are in their late teens and early twenties, many more will be, because their paretns will have lost control of them. It's a form of child-centred home detention, and it all online here.