Some of y’all have legit bad parents but some of y’all out here hating on your folks just trying their best.

Like there’s a difference between your parents trying and failing and your parents not giving a shit.

0 parents go into parenthood prepared for parenthood. It’s just not how parenthood happens.

Suppose I would really like to learn to throw knives well, so I go to a schoolyard and try my best to throw a knife at a log without hitting the children running around behind it.

Am I responsible if my knife hits a child? I genuinely tried my best and failed.

You can’t prepare for every eventuality, but parents are definitely capable of negligent or deliberate recklessness even when they try their best in the moment.

I understand if people decide to have children when oppression means choosing between that and submitting to economic genocide. But those people should then acknowledge the violence the system inflicts on them and their children, so they should be radical leftist.

It is fine to have children in a suburban hellscape if you participate in trying to overthrow the system so your neighborhood can legally be redesigned to allow your 8 year old child to safely explore the outside world without adult supervision. If you support an economic and legal framework that forces your child’s dependence on you, you are culpable in that oppression.

I also understand if people decide to have children in traumatic material deprivation without underlying oppression. Rare now, but it used to be more common and with climate change it may be again. The same logic applies and parents should participate in trying to improve their neighborhood’s material conditions.