. . . and then there was pickle.

Throughout this blog I have repeatedly taken an approach of self-deprecation and self-mockery, but if the truth be told – I’m an arrogant a** that really does think that I know what I’m doing – and that I am going to be a better parent than any of you - and certainly any of these morons I see on TV that do amazingly stupid things to their children.

The problem with this is that I simultaneously fear one moment’s slip of judgment or lack of attention and then I too will fall into that horrible pool of publicly hung-out-to-dry bad parents. I am constantly reminded by my small foibles what a thin line it is between me and those poor bastards on Live on Five.

I mean, anybody could strap their two year old in with only a lap belt - and then run a red light at high speed into the side of a bus - as one local lady did recently . . . killing her son.

Maybe that’s a bad example.

Or the foster parents that locked their kids up in cages . . .

OK, so . . .

It seems as though the bar has been set so low now, and that there’s such an absence of positive child rearing - that we as a culture are judged more on how ‘at least we’re not that person.’ - instead of the adherence to any positive models that could exist outside the historically accepted structures.

Somehow the term ‘Family Values’ has come to mean church going, anti-abortionist instead of values regarding the building and sustaining of a strong family. You can teach responsibility and the importance of right and wrong without it being a politically or religiously motivated.

Families on the outside of 'Red State' ideals have to find new terms, and new systems if we are to have credibility. It is obvious that society as a whole needs a new way of teaching values. As more and more of the population falls out of our society's historic roles - we need to find a way to teach right and wrong outside of the church. It is the only way to ensure that good, sound, moral judgment has a chance of infiltrating the day to day decisions made by parents and children. Our society needs it, and the evening news is my constant reminder.

Obviously this wont cure stupidity, or poor judgment (and I ceratinly dont think liberals are the only ones misguiding their children) – but at least then there will be a system to guide the decisions that many families are no longer getting from the Sunday sermons.

I do not know the answer to this, and I certainly dont want govermental moral guidance - I think we've already got enough of that as it is these days . . . but something has got to give or we will soon be as morally bankrupt as the rest of the world already thinks we are.

Pickle’s Papa