The Emancipation of the Child

Is It Too Much to Ask to Treat Children as Human Beings?

“The more boring a child is, the more the parents, when showing off the child, receive adulation for being good parents—because they have a tame child-creature in their house.”—Frank Zappa, MOJO Magazine¹

On March 12th, 2015, British newspaper The Times opened the front page with an article on the extent of the mental health crisis among children. The children involved are those hurting themselves, suffering from depression or other disorders. According to experts, we should look for the causes in the consequences of “exam stress, school bullying, and social media”.²

What nonsense! This is the standard excuse used to protect society’s parental figures because the real cause of such large-scale mental problems among teens lies in their emotional neglect by modern parents with full-time jobs: the women’s emancipation that enabled mothers to have careers forgot about the children.