Bad Parent ! No Children for you!

    You need a license to drive a car, own a gun, or go fishing, even your dog needs a license and without a permit you can't put up a fence on your own property but the most important thing we do on this planet is done with no training, manual or certificate. Anybody, whether they want to or not, can make a kid and attempt to raise it.
    As parents we all make mistakes and question our decisions, most of us do the best we can, but not everyone can say the same. The amount of child abuse and neglect that exists is overwhelming. In 2007, approximately 5.8 million children were involved in an estimated 3.2 million child abuse reports and allegations in the United States, and the numbers are not dropping. Most of us are aware that these scumbags exist and  would do what we could to help, but these are just the most obvious examples of bad parenting.
     Most of us just shake our head in disgust at the lesser offenses like unsupervised children running wild, or kids that are disrespectful and vulgar to adults. We do nothing because there is not really much we can do. These are examples of parents who can't be bothered to spend the time raising their kids and teaching them the proper way to act.
    So what I suggest is simple, I believe that you should be required to have a license in order to have a child. It wouldn't be that complicated. Start it in high school and have a class in "life skills and child rearing" be mandatory and comprehensive, and not just a glossing over of subject matter. If these classes aren't passed or the person leaves high school before finishing then a longer program that incurs a charge has to be taken. This may also be a slight incentive to stay in school longer. Under the best of circumstance it may also be a slight deterrent to teen pregnancy if the punishment is considered.
    If you bring a child into the world without having your license then you are given mandatory community service every week until you complete your course. Under the best case scenario the community service would include working in child, spousal, and animal abuse, substance abuse, prisons, and social services. In short places where you can see the result of not having good life skills. Failure to attend your community service can result in fines, imprisonment or temporary placement of children in another home, whether it be a relative or foster home.
   Also if you go on welfare your license is suspended until you can get on your feet and take care of your own children. Things happen to everyone, and people need help, and I understand that, but there's no reason that you should be bringing MORE children into the world if you can't afford them and then expecting others to pay for them. In cases of abuse and criminal activity your license can of course be taken away.
    As far as the cost for this, there is no reason the country couldn't end up in the black on this. Teen pregnancy costs us money, so does welfare parents who add to their family, and the mandatory community service would be a definite benefit for programs that are government funded. Teaching proper parenting and life skills could eventually reduce the number of people in prison or new welfare enrollments  which cost this country a fortune. Having to pay for licensing if you dropped out or had your license revoked, and fines are all positive cash flow. Child abuse cases cost this country millions to pursue, if licensing stopped only 1% of that abuse that would be 60,000 less children abused, the benefit of that goes way beyond monetary but the money saved as well is undeniably huge.
    As a country we can not afford economically or socially to allow our greatest asset, it's people, to be less then great yet we continue to raise generations of children who have no respect for peoples lives and property, children who enter lives filled with drugs, crime and abuse who in turn continue the circle with their own children. We are destroying our country from within, rotting at the core so to speak. Maybe it's time to teach people how to be responsible for themselves and their children, whether they like it or not.
   
    
   

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