Rights come with responsibilities

August 14, 2025

Julian Cribb’s statement in his article, “Most poignant of all is the fact that parents, everywhere, seem content to ruin their children’s future for the sake of their own present comfort, convenience and luxury. Their claim to ’love their children’ is a false narrative, contrived to exculpate their own childlike self-centredness” is one of the most powerful I’ve ever read.

As a school teacher, for more than 20 years, I’ve seen this exact sentiment play out in all its variations. Its consequences on the ground in the classroom never ceased to astonish me. I can’t tell you the amount of times I had to remind a parent what their parental responsibilities were – that they had a duty of care, and that children can’t just fend for themselves.

This is an area where our government refuses to look. They don’t want to offend parents; come election time, they are in the business of buying parental votes. But it’s become very clear to me, that there are oceans of parents out there who need reminding that their role not only has rights, but expansive responsibilities.