The difference between community and state.

“It takes a village to raise a child.” – An African proverb, brought into every day western language by Hillary Clinton. I’ve never read her book (despite it sitting on a bookcase in old house for some years!) so I don’t know what she meant by it, but I know what I think it means.

I think it means community. Community that grows up around families, where they offer help and support to each other. Not the state interfering and handing down rules, guidelines and initiatives, not quangos pontificating, not TV experts advising politicians on laws to make.

It doesn’t surprise me that someone has started up the Parent’s Liberation Movement. I hope it’s more than just a joke.

I notice that a couple of groups have already spoken out against the initiative, including the (National) Family and Parenting Initiative. Not surprising, a small amount of research tells us:

This was an early creation of the then new Labour government in 1999. It was established as an independent charity, with financial backing from the government and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, to support parents in bringing up their children, to promote the wellbeing of families, and to make society more family-friendly.

So an organisation set up and funded by the government thinks that a parenting group should do as it’s told. Really. I think we’ve had enough of that.

Yes, of course parents need support. But we need support from each other. We need to be able to look after each other’s children without being criminalised. We need to be able to choose educational paths for our children without LA interference or having to submit to licensing arrangements.

We need to recognise the difference between community and state.