The Europe We Adore: Parenting Edition

I know that some children slip through the cracks and that they are the least able victims to protect themselves against abuse. It saddens me that any child would ever be abused by anyone.

Yet, parents have children, and as far as I'm concerned, until God creates a decent replacement for Mom and Dad, parents will provide children with the best chance for success and love. When a child is abused, by all means, get the child out of the situation.

I'm not certain, however, that I've ever seen a more misguided gaggle of overbearing nutjobs like the nannystate buttinskys they have in the UK right now. A few weeks ago I highlighted a story in which parents were having their small children removed from their home because the state feared the younger children might become obese.

This week three more stories come out of the UK. Daily Mail links all.

First, a mother is tracked down by police for threatening her misbehaving children with a slap at the checkout counter at the market. Her punishment is that she will be under the watchful eye of the government until her youngest child, a four years old daughter, graduates from school in another 14 years.

Next, the Scottish government at the last minute has denied the approval of a marriage between two people because the pregnant bride-to-be may not be intelligent enough. Is the state thinking that an unmarried mother is better for the child than a married one, or are her fears justified that the state may indeed plan to take the child after birth?

Finally, the NHS has again stuck their nose in the business of a woman 11 weeks pregnant because the apartment she is living in is under construction. (Perhaps she should simply lie and thereby comfort the social workers by saying that she plans on aborting. You know, no harm, no foul.)

These stories are frightening if they come at all close to mirroring the normal state of things in the UK. And this is the European model we are looking to emulate?