Are Parents Responsible for their Children’s Behavior?
When children behave badly, should their parents accept responsibility for their behavior? Moreover, should the parents be punished for the bad behavior of their children? This is a seemingly difficult question to answer for many reasons. It’s because of a basic misunderstanding about the responsibility of parents in instructing their children. Many modern societies consider corporal punishment of children as unacceptable. There are laws in certain countries that can put parents behind bars for spanking their own kids. Although this is done in an effort to control child abuse, it can have a lot of negative repercussions. These laws can prohibit responsible parents from correcting their children and showing them the right way to behave in life.
It is very evident that kids from dysfunctional homes, where parents have no control over their kids, end up as anti-social elements. Since there is no one to correct their behavior and show them the right way to live, they end up as drug addicts and social outcasts. Therefore, parents need the freedom to properly instruct and guide their children. But when that freedom is snatched from them, their children can often end up on the wrong side of the law. Only then, the question of parents accepting the responsibility and punishment for their children’s errors comes into the picture.
If parents are given the freedom to correct their children in the way they think best, then they should be held responsible for their children’s actions. They would also have to undergo punishment if the children are too young to bear the consequences of their actions. On the other hand, if parents are…