# Should parents be trained an licensed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 30, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332 "2016-07-30T22:15:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/141 "2016-08-08T08:03:37Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > That is certainly one way to go about it. Child who just got bitten by foaming-at-mouth wild animal: “I don’t want the rabies shots!!” Parents: (shrug) “OK, then.” ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/142 "2016-08-08T16:42:54Z")
so the OP wants a society of special snowflakes? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/143 "2016-08-08T16:56:16Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > It’s insane, a totalitarian idea. This. Imagine something like the IRS targeting of conservative organizations but inside of a new “federal family planning department”. Or, for the liberals, imagine a Trump-appointed head of the “federal family planning department” telling all gays, Muslims, and illegal immigrants they weren’t allowed to have kids? What would the punishment be for people who had kids without a license? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/144 "2016-08-08T17:34:30Z")
I’m 100% for trained and licensed parents. However, I wouldn’t take kids away or prevent them from being born to unlicensed ones. These licenses should be used much like voluntary labeling on foods. People can see them, make whatever judgements they want, but over time licensing will come to be seen as an important part, if not a requirement, of good parenting. Public shame and ridicule can be used to heap social pressure on people who insist on not getting licensed but still having babies ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/145 "2016-08-08T17:59:07Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > As was stated earlier, it’s just an impossible and impractical dream. Dream? It sounds more like a nightmare: .gov bureaucrats telling 60-75% of people they can’t have children, or taking their illegal children away from them. That’s the sort of thing that, in a just world, would get .gov bureaucrats shot in the street and hung from the lightposts. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/146 "2016-08-09T03:09:11Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > But some would argue that they wouldn’t need to have such skills if they don’t want to be parents. Plus how can you be sure they are doing as instructed without some sort of inspection? Well, that argument doesn’t fly for school-age children - they’ve no idea what the future holds, so be prepared anyway. Second, the idea is to raise the base level of good information about parenting, not demand inspections, sterilizations, or what have you. The problem with most parenting is the same as the problem with most murders - carried out by uneducated amateurs too often acting on emotion rather than reason. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/147 "2016-08-09T03:31:50Z")
Not only no but HELL no. It is not a good idea but impractical, it is a bad idea and we’re just lucky that it would be near impossible to implement or there would be some government office planning it right now. There is no more basic human right than the right to reproduce. Reproduction is the one command that all life must obey or cease to exist. No government nor organization has the right to decide who among us gets the “privilege” of children. Furthermore we need diversity, diversity in the ways of raising children is a very important diversity. If all children are raised using government approved methods, by government approved parents we’re going to have far less uniqueness in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/148 "2016-08-09T13:30:33Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > if you can conceive …the point is moot. Unless you temporarily sterilize everyone and then unblock the sterilization after they get their licenses, this would be ineffective. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/149 "2016-08-09T19:37:44Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > So, you’re gonna take away people’s kids and when they object you’ll quote Star Trek? > > OK. More to the point. You’re going to take away people’s kids and when they MURDER you you’ll quote Star Trek? Cause don’t think that in a country with over 300 million guns you’re going to be taking the kids away from people without them doing more than objecting. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/150 "2016-08-09T19:48:52Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > I think you are missing the point that molding the child in your image is a bad thing. Because then the child becomes you instead of its own person. So you’d much rather kids are raised in the government’s image? :smack: That’s how kids learn and grow, they observe and emulate their parents. Your system is the one that produces automatons. Milton Friedman, Nobel prizing winning economist, said that one of the main reasons that people should be allowed to decide how to spend their own money rather than having some government committee spend it is that nobody is as careful with somebody else’s money as they are with their own. In the same way no government appointee would love and care for someone else’s children as much as their parents. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/151 "2016-08-09T21:41:53Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > Not only no but HELL no. It is not a good idea but impractical, it is a bad idea and we’re just lucky that it would be near impossible to implement or there would be some government office planning it right now. > There is no more basic human right than the right to reproduce. Reproduction is the one command that all life must obey or cease to exist. No government nor organization has the right to decide who among us gets the “privilege” of children. > Furthermore we need diversity, diversity in the ways of raising children is a very important diversity. If all children are raised using government approved methods, by government approved parents we’re going to have far less uniqueness in the world. Except some of that diversity causes damage to people later in life and breeds individuals thas are harmful to society. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/152 "2016-08-09T21:48:21Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > Except some of that diversity causes damage to people later in life and breeds individuals that are harmful to society. Again: > [@Velocity](#): > > **MachinaForce** , just state your motives and points clearly. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/153 "2016-08-10T19:06:40Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > Except some of that diversity causes damage to people later in life and breeds individuals thas are harmful to society. _We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control…_ ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/154 "2016-08-10T21:36:56Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > Except some of that diversity causes damage to people later in life and breeds individuals thas are harmful to society. Life breeds people that are harmful to society. Anyone saying otherwise is selling something. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2016, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/155 "2016-08-11T08:57:11Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > MachinaForce, just state your motives and points clearly. He’s not going to do it. He’s going to weasel around and respond with “somebody on this webpage says something, but i don;t agree with it, or maybe I do.” He is clearly not interested in actually debating any position and I doubt he has the ability to do so. ---
**Author:** ![T.M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@T.M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.M)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/156 "2016-08-12T11:12:19Z")
Are we going to take children away from unlicensed parents and place them with children services where in the UK they would be in greater danger than if they were left with their unlicensed birth parents. This is a can of worms not to be opened ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/157 "2016-08-14T18:00:13Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > He’s not going to do it. He’s going to weasel around and respond with “somebody on this webpage says something, but i don;t agree with it, or maybe I do.” > > He is clearly not interested in actually debating any position and I doubt he has the ability to do so. I have been stating the points, you just can’t argue against them. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/158 "2016-08-14T18:01:14Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Again: I have been, you just don’t answer them. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/159 "2016-08-14T18:10:39Z")
And regarding the family unit, it maybe should be done away with. It’s essentially servitude and there have been quite the number of people who have been harmed by their own families. You can choose friends but you can’t choose the people who raise you. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332/160 "2016-08-14T18:20:01Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > And regarding the family unit, it maybe should be done away with. It’s essentially servitude and there have been quite the number of people who have been harmed by their own families. You can choose friends but you can’t choose the people who raise you. You want to create a collective, in other words? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-parents-be-trained-an-licensed/761332.md?page=9)