What is wrong with people’s thinking? I see a bunch of concerned parents acquiescing to the UCP dictatorship’s demand to put their children at risk or stay home and home school. That’s not how to deal with a dictator. That’s obeying the dictator.
By obeying a dictator in advance, you give that dictator power. You teach the autocrat that you will obey his demands. You encourage further action that will harm you and your loved ones because you’ve already shown you will obey his orders.
As parents we should implicitly understand this dynamic.
When your spirited preschooler demands candy for breakfast, your response teaches them how to behave. And their response teaches you how to behave.
When your spirited preschooler demands candy for breakfast, your response teaches them how to behave. And their response teaches you how to behave.
Give them candy once for breakfast and you’ve created a dictator who will expand into demanding more than just candy. The art of manipulation is inherent in children. Because they don’t perceive needs beyond their own. They aren’t evil, just developmentally egocentric.
When refused candy for breakfast, most children will be defiant or overwhelmed with disappointment. Temper tantrums, pushing buttons, power struggling for control. Or learned helplessness and withdrawal, crying in frustration or resigned obedience.
If you don’t take time to explain your rationale to your child, the child develops their own narrative. You’re mean, selfish, controlling, hate your child, irrational, or a number of other negative attributes are assumed. None are true. But lack of communication creates tension.
We teach our children candy for breakfast is unacceptable because of nutritional needs, health & safety. As parents, we have the obligation and responsibility to govern our small child’s nutritional intake. We cope with the pushback, because developmentally they don’t understand.
Refusal of candy for breakfast in a calm rational voice may end in a tantrum, but eventually the child learns there is no point to cross that boundary. Mom isn’t budging.
These are power dynamics. Parents and children teach each other who has power and how to wield it.
These are power dynamics. Parents and children teach each other who has power and how to wield it.
It’s the same power dynamic with governments and the public. You teach the government how far they can go. If you obey in advance, the government knows it can dictate more & you will obey. And they will. Dictators always consolidate and increase their power and control.
So why are parents acquiescing to the UCP government’s demand to put our children at risk or resigning to homeschool and abandoning primarily mom’s employment? We are not preschoolers. We are the adults & the government does not dictate our response to threats of harm. We do.
The power dynamic between a parent and child is not the same power dynamic between a democratic government and the people that elected representatives to govern. Children only have power if we give it to them.
As an adult citizen, I didn’t relinquish all my power to the government. Neither did any other citizen. A child is powerless if their parent only provides candy for breakfast. They can request other nutritional food, but if that’s all the parent provides, they eat or starve.
We are not obligated to either accept the UCP school opening protocol or withdraw from public school. We have power to dissent, protest, & demand better policy and adequate funding to ensure health & safety is maximized.
We also have abundant evidence that this government is insisting we take risks that will end in sickness and death for some children, teachers & their family members.
We do not obey dictators who seek to put people at risk. We demand changes to address the risks.
We do not obey dictators who seek to put people at risk. We demand changes to address the risks.
So I ask again, why are parents acquiescing to a dictators power? We aren’t forced to comply. We aren’t powerless to change the government’s decision.
It’s our duty, obligation and responsibility to protect the health and safety of our children from a deadly pandemic.
It’s our duty, obligation and responsibility to protect the health and safety of our children from a deadly pandemic.
The UCP government is offering certain risk to those attending or teaching school, a high probability of COVid transmission & are representing some deaths and illness as acceptable outcomes. If we accept this without question, UCP learns they have power and obedient citizens.
As parents, we know what happens when we cave to our child’s manipulation & demands. We create a monster. We have all been in public when our child has had a meltdown. How you handled a meltdown taught your child the limits of their power over you.
And it taught every parent the limits of their own patience & power over another human being. Power is not absolute. It isn’t meant to be. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
As parents, we responded to a public meltdown by ignoring the needs of our child & other people, leaving the public place because the child needed space to calm down or trying to force the child to be silent.
UCP is trying to force the public to be silent. That’s called abuse of power. It’s absolute power & control.
Some citizens see UCP ignoring the public because little has changed. Many are adopting hopelessness and disengaging from the political environment.
Some citizens see UCP ignoring the public because little has changed. Many are adopting hopelessness and disengaging from the political environment.
Both of those choices in behaviour lead to one outcome. Power consolidation for UCP.
Obedience is not an option. People’s lives are at stake. The majority of them are our children’s lives.
We owe our children protection. We must demand their lives be paramount.
Obedience is not an option. People’s lives are at stake. The majority of them are our children’s lives.
We owe our children protection. We must demand their lives be paramount.
We do have tough choices to make. We are faced with the choice to obey or dissent from a tyrant attempting to intentionally harm our children. Careers, mortgages, Mexican vacations, car payments, soccer registrations et al are not the priority.
Our children depend upon us to protect them. You do NOT have the moral right to abandon children’s health and safety for material comforts. You do have the moral obligation to protect children and all others being put at risk by a protofascist regime.
Our complacency and acceptance regarding Cargill policies taught Kenney we won’t protest or make demands if it’s not us personally impacted. You can process that guilt later.
Every citizen must demand change now, or we resign our fate to a wannabe fascist regime; UCP.
Every citizen must demand change now, or we resign our fate to a wannabe fascist regime; UCP.
UCP is coming for our children. One of the most vulnerable groups in society.
We dissent until they change the policy, or we teach our children their lives are less important than our material comforts or avoiding conflict at all costs, including the cost to children’s lives.
We dissent until they change the policy, or we teach our children their lives are less important than our material comforts or avoiding conflict at all costs, including the cost to children’s lives.
