How is it that being a parent is the most important/difficult job on the planet....?

I understand were you are coming from, but take it from me, someone who has worked with social services.. that bad parents come in all packages...and they know how to lie and manipulate.

What we do need is tougher laws and more funding to social services and other law enforcement agencies that do investigate abuse. One worker could have hundreds of open cases at once, there is simply no way any 1 human can keep up with everyone of those children. I personally would love to see people who have their kids taken away sterilized so they can't have anymore.

It's an interesting idea, Ivy, but who gets to make the call about who's a bad parent, and who's a good one? What are the criteria? Someone who beats kids? Or just someone who can't earn a certain minimum amount each year? How about someone that just uses bad language? Surely the little darlings shouldn't hear stuff like that, should they? I know a few people who are sure they're pretty good parents, but I think that the grandparents should have been sterilized 60 or 70 years ago. But the sad part of it is, you don't know who will make a good parent or not until it's too late.

Interesting idea - but tough to put into practice.

i do agree however the only problem is who gets to decide what makes a great parent and what makes a crappy one (other then obvious things like living in a box or drug use etc). it's not easy to tell if someone is going to be a good parent until they have kids. i have had a couple people in my family tell me they never though i would be the kind of mom that i am (loving attentive etc... ) and that they are proud of me for doing so well with my daughter. so if people based my years before children on whether or not i would be allowed to have children then i wouldn't have gotten my chance to have kids and make a good mom. it sucks that there are really crappy parents in the world but at the same time no one should have a right to say this person gets kids and this one doesn't.

Exactly. Something has to be done. There are so many kids out there who are wild, mean, gross, and just plain o' nasty to other little kids for no reason. Why? Because they grow up like that at home and have no good parents. If parents were to raise their child like they are suppose to with love and kindness we would have these problems so less than often. It's so sad.

I feel so sorry for all those children out there that go through so much crap it makes me sick. I just don't get child abuses. Really why do they have children if they don't even want them other than to beat them? And if you always see it on the news these child abuses don't have ONE child they have like 5 so why did they have more if they couldn't even handle the first one? It's so annoying. Poor kids...I pray for them all.

i totally agree with u.....u need a license to drive, but even a convicted child molester can become a parent. it is wrong!! childens innocent lives should be considered more precious than ANYTHING, no matter what, or who is offended by it. I also cant see why a person could get the death penalty for killing a police officer who very well knows the danger he is in when he goes to work everyday, but if they rape and kill a 5 month old girl (baby brianna) a person gets to live out their life in prison. if anyoone deserves to die, i beleive it is the child rapists. The only reason i could think that the government isnt doing more to protect our children would be that they are the pedophiles or know one.

I agree! The sad thing is, couples who cannot have children and choose to adopt have to go through an extremely expensive and rigorous screening process and jump through hoops. AND the birth mother has 3 months to change her mind and claim her baby. Yet deadbeat parents can repeatedly have children no matter what, pretty much.

I agree, people ragged on me for being young, yet there are older moms beating the crap out of their kids, or hooking at night while their kids are home alone, yet mine are very well taken care of, never left alone, never hit once, so yeah I definitely think they need to start worrying about everyone, and maybe send out random social workers out of the blue, to any ones house, just to check for signs of abuse, or neglect, might catch these SOB's before they kill their kids

I am a parent for 29 years now .and i am proud to be a mother for 4 chidren all grown up two of them with kids so i am already a grandmother, i should say not an easy to be one but yet really rewarding and self fullfilling job because you raise them with full effort ,gave education and now i see them a successful one.

Is sterilising people in case they turn out to be bad parents the answer? Or should there be more support for parents. I am not nearly as good a parent as I should be, but feel confident I'll improve once my baby sleeps through the night. Should I be sterilised because I don't function well when sleep deprived?

But people lie on applications all the time>

many who seem like capable candidates for anything in life turn out to be incapable once they fill the position.

Sad.