Warner Todd Huston
Canadian parents fooled into raising prostitutes
By Warner Todd Huston
Canada, oh Canada. What the heck happened to ya? I suppose it is nothing more mundane than that our northern neighbor has succumbed to the same sort of nihilism that western culture in general is slouching toward. Two recent stories in the Canadian press could not illustrate better the depths being plumbed by Canadian society — and by extension our own.
The first purports to be parenting advice perpetrated on Canada by one Adriana Barton of the Globe and Mail. In this woeful homage to the newest sort of Dr. Spokian abdication of parenting, Barton tells Canadian parents that "consensual living" is a far better way to rear a child than exerting parental authority.
After reading Barton's piece, though, one gets the distinct feeling that this "new" idea of "consensual living" allows willful children to control the parent. It is "non-hierarchical" — meaning the parents have no authority, apparently — and is supposedly based upon "understanding each other's feelings," trumpets Barton.
Does your child want to wear a Halloween cat costume day and night? So be it, let the young'un have her fun. Is your child throwing a temper tantrum about having to go to an appointment with a parent? Heck, let the child have his way and cancel that darned ol' appointment. Don't be cross with little Jimmie. He's a fine boy no matter what. Why, he needs that ever more enshrined self-esteem to be built up, don'tcha know? The concept seems to push the idea that parents should bend over backward for the child and work their entire lives around the child's druthers. Indulgent. Hypersensitive. Cloying. Just the sort of stuff made for that parent too busy to actually get involved with their child's life, but want to feel like they are real parents anyway.
Sadly, this claptrap was spawned in 2006 by a group of families in North Carolina. Barton assures us that the idea has been "gaining ground in alternative parenting communities and online." Yeah, I found out Elvis is still alive online, too.
Now juxtapose that story with one that appeared in the The Edmonton Sun penned by Andrew Hanon. To any sensible parent the headline to this story seems to be the ultimate, logical outcome of the "consensual living" style of parenting: Teen girls trading sex for favours.
Nice, huh?
In Hanon's story we find Canadian girls as young as 12 willingly prostituting themselves to men in their 40s for nothing else so prosaic as $40 to go shopping with. The story details the appalling trend of middle-class girls trading sex for money, drugs, and luxury goods.
And worse, there doesn't seem to be any sense among these young children prostituting their bodies that they've done anything wrong.
Now, officials have noted the climbing rates of sexually transmitted diseases in the USA for several years. Recently, reports about the highest rates of chlamydia ever recorded made the news detailing the fact that women are finding a three times higher rate of contracting the disease than men. These diseases can have far reaching effects for girls. Without treatment girls can find themselves becoming sterile. Chlamydia can be cured with antibiotics, though, but medical treatment must be administered quickly.
In any case, I'd hazard that many of these parents are about to "consensual living" their kids into a disease ridden, morally corrupt way of life that will destroy the coming generations of humanity, lay low our societies, and turn "living" into a hell that could so easily be avoided by a sensible return to tradition, religious tenet and cultural norms.
Oh Canada, Oh boy.
© Warner Todd Huston
April 3, 2009
Canada, oh Canada. What the heck happened to ya? I suppose it is nothing more mundane than that our northern neighbor has succumbed to the same sort of nihilism that western culture in general is slouching toward. Two recent stories in the Canadian press could not illustrate better the depths being plumbed by Canadian society — and by extension our own.
The first purports to be parenting advice perpetrated on Canada by one Adriana Barton of the Globe and Mail. In this woeful homage to the newest sort of Dr. Spokian abdication of parenting, Barton tells Canadian parents that "consensual living" is a far better way to rear a child than exerting parental authority.
After reading Barton's piece, though, one gets the distinct feeling that this "new" idea of "consensual living" allows willful children to control the parent. It is "non-hierarchical" — meaning the parents have no authority, apparently — and is supposedly based upon "understanding each other's feelings," trumpets Barton.
Does your child want to wear a Halloween cat costume day and night? So be it, let the young'un have her fun. Is your child throwing a temper tantrum about having to go to an appointment with a parent? Heck, let the child have his way and cancel that darned ol' appointment. Don't be cross with little Jimmie. He's a fine boy no matter what. Why, he needs that ever more enshrined self-esteem to be built up, don'tcha know? The concept seems to push the idea that parents should bend over backward for the child and work their entire lives around the child's druthers. Indulgent. Hypersensitive. Cloying. Just the sort of stuff made for that parent too busy to actually get involved with their child's life, but want to feel like they are real parents anyway.
Sadly, this claptrap was spawned in 2006 by a group of families in North Carolina. Barton assures us that the idea has been "gaining ground in alternative parenting communities and online." Yeah, I found out Elvis is still alive online, too.
Now juxtapose that story with one that appeared in the The Edmonton Sun penned by Andrew Hanon. To any sensible parent the headline to this story seems to be the ultimate, logical outcome of the "consensual living" style of parenting: Teen girls trading sex for favours.
Nice, huh?
In Hanon's story we find Canadian girls as young as 12 willingly prostituting themselves to men in their 40s for nothing else so prosaic as $40 to go shopping with. The story details the appalling trend of middle-class girls trading sex for money, drugs, and luxury goods.
And worse, there doesn't seem to be any sense among these young children prostituting their bodies that they've done anything wrong.
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Police were horrified to realize many of the girls were angry with them for shutting off the cash flow.
One girl told Azam, "We told the police that they never forced us to have sex. They didn't need to because they could always find other girls to do it..."
Now, officials have noted the climbing rates of sexually transmitted diseases in the USA for several years. Recently, reports about the highest rates of chlamydia ever recorded made the news detailing the fact that women are finding a three times higher rate of contracting the disease than men. These diseases can have far reaching effects for girls. Without treatment girls can find themselves becoming sterile. Chlamydia can be cured with antibiotics, though, but medical treatment must be administered quickly.
In any case, I'd hazard that many of these parents are about to "consensual living" their kids into a disease ridden, morally corrupt way of life that will destroy the coming generations of humanity, lay low our societies, and turn "living" into a hell that could so easily be avoided by a sensible return to tradition, religious tenet and cultural norms.
Oh Canada, Oh boy.
© Warner Todd Huston
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