Re: What about the parent's right

I get what you're saying here, concerned aunt. But the thing is, in our current society, parents have the power to enforce being the dominant adults in their child's life. They often deny their child to work among many adults outside their immediate family (if that); they often strictly control watching what various adults may do on TV; and they especially deny their children the right to make adult friends (I'm not even talking about lovers here). As a result, save for a few "authorized" adults (like teachers, coaches, etc.), children in our present, heavily age segregated, and heavily information restricted world spend very little time around adults outside of their parents and these few other authorized and heavily regulated adult authority figures (who act pretty much like parents do!).

I understand what you are trying to say dissident. In a culture where everyone cares about their neighbors, it would be ideal. In reality some people tend to be selfish and don't care about their neighbor. I don't trust my daughter with anyone that I don't get to know and trust myself. During my lifetime, I learned that their are scumbags out there and not interested in the well being of that child. I'm not talking about the RSO across the street. I'm talking about John the pimp, Ruben the dealer, Taylor the smuggler, Hector the gang recruiter, etc. Sometimes the good guys are actually the bad guys just take my case as an example. The investigation process and how it was dealt was way more harmful than the rape itself. You know what I find interesting, I hardly remember all the detail of when I was raped as a kid, but I could go into details about the doctor office, the detectives and how the desks where layout, foster care house, the courthouse, the two psychologists, even the car the social worker drove in. After the case was closed and I was able to return to my family, I was scared of cops as a kid. I used to hide from them when I saw them that is how traumatized I was as a kid.

It isn't a nice world out there. It would be nice that we could socialize our kids by experiencing interaction between as many people and things as possible. I am a big firm believer if you open your ears, you could learn from anybody or anything around you, and it is our prejudgments and misconceptions that usually cloud our learning ability. In reality, parents need to use caution who they trust their baby with because it is hard to know who has the best intention for that child. I can't just give my daughter to my neighbor to take her to his church when I never met that neighbor before.

Side note: You know who is the most expensive coyotes? The border patrol.