Every now and then, when news breaks of another kid being left in a hot car and dying, there will be comments to the effect of “There ought to be a licensing test that people be required to pass before they can be allowed to be parents.”
Now - ignoring the Constitutionality or any legal issues about this - what sort of things ought to be on such a test?
That one should not leave a kid in a hot car should be a given - (although often it’s not that parents are unaware of the danger, as it is that they genuinely forgot)
“Infant cannot be given baths with water as hot as what adults use for bathing/showering” might be another.
Some reminder warning-question about the dangers of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy would also be good to include, as well as questions reminding of the danger of shaking a baby (brain damage).
I think the big problem is that there’s a percentage of the population that’s some combination of stupid and/or ignorant, and who doesn’t bother to do the research/read the pamphlets, etc… These are the dim-bulbs you see giving toddlers bottles of soda, or who STILL put bumpers, blankets, stuffed animals, etc… in baby beds despite more than a decade of messaging saying to put NOTHING in with the baby. Or who put their babies face down, despite multiple decades of messaging to put babies face-up. Or who don’t have car seats, or who can’t manage to put them in right, or buckle their kids into them correctly. These are typically the things people refer to when advocating for parental licensing or sterilization or whatever, not whether you feed your kid Similac or Enfamil, or use Pampers or Luvs, or whether you read to them every night or not.
ALL of those things are directly related to parental stupidity or willful ignorance. I’m not sure how you test for that exactly though.
Something like this already exists for prospective adoptive parents. There’s a home inspection, background check, and mandatory training in first aid and CPR. It’s a pretty good starting point. But having represented parents accused of abusing, neglecting, or abandoning their children, and having had a few adoptive parents in the mix, I can also say it’s not perfect.
It shouldn’t be a test, it should be a class. A couple of months of weekend training, covering topics from birth to 1 year old. How to clean and care for a child, what to feed your child, how to setup a crib, car seat. Include information on laws and regulations (such as safe haven laws).
Passing the class is more about paying attention and giving a crap about caring for your child the right way, and less about whether you can pick the right answer on a multiple choice test.
Re: kids dying in hot cars, I remember an article from a few years back that showed that this phenomenon struck at a similar rate regardless of things like income, education, etc. – with the conclusion that all humans, even parents, have about the same potential for occasional forgetfulness that can be fatal in unusual circumstances. But I don’t have the link handy.
[ul][li]Are you over the age of 21? Yes/no.[/li][li]What is the highest level of education you have completed? [list][]Less than high school []High school graduate []Some college []College graduate []Post-graduate degree[/ul][/li][li]Are you married? Yes/no.[/li][li]Have you ever been convicted of a felony?[/li][li]On average, how many alcoholic drinks do you consume during the week?[/li][ul][li]0-5[]5-10[*]More than 10[/ul][/list][/li]
Regards,
Shodan
Right - such a class/exam couldn’t stop incidents of genuine forgetfulness. But they could stop parents who think, “Yes, I know it’s a hot day and my kids are in the car, but I’m *only *going to go into Walmart for 25 minutes and be right back,” underestimating how quickly temperatures can soar inside the car on a hundred-degree day in Phoenix.
This is an interesting question, but we need to know the goal before we can propose a test. Are we trying to limit the population? Use eugenics to improve the quality of children? Prevent unfit parents from having children? Something else, or Some mixture of these?
The test imagined in the OP is how. You take all that important knowledge in the beginning of your post and put it on the test. If you are ignorant of too many of the right answers you don’t get a kid license. To an extant it works for stupid too. If you can’t study and retain the information long enough to take and pass the test you also fail.
You take all that important knowledge in the beginning of your post and put it on the test. If you are ignorant of too many of the right answers you don’t get a kid license. To an extant it works for stupid too. If you can’t study and retain the information long enough to take and pass the test you also fail.