> Why is this thread acting as though teaching our children self-control is somehow a different lesson?
Because some things require more self-control than others.
Imagine if the drinking fountains in public parks had non-alcoholic beer instead of water. Installed and maintained by Budweiser, totally free of charge, guaranteed ice-cold. Responsible parents would avoid the beer fountains and bring a thermos of water, but a lot of parents would just let their kids drink from them, right? And even very responsible parents would probably let their kids drink from them occasionally, because we forgot the thermos, and it's right there and it's free.
Raising non-drinking kids in that world would be harder than in this one. Everything you said about "teaching self-control" and the importance of parental effort would still be true, but it would also be true that when kids in that world start drinking earlier than in ours, it's not solely the parents' fault.
That probably sounds like a ridiculous example, but I think it's pretty analogous to schools showing Youtube videos. My kids had never heard of youtube before they saw it in their second grade classroom, and I'm not thrilled about it, but I get it, because it's right there and it's free. Raising kids is hard no matter what, but the fact that the world's biggest and best source of good educational content also happens to be riddled with crap makes it harder.
Not everything is like that. The library doesn't have Stephen King mixed in with the picture books. The Disney channel isn't also Pornhub. The parks don't have beer fountains. That's the difference.
Because some things require more self-control than others.
Imagine if the drinking fountains in public parks had non-alcoholic beer instead of water. Installed and maintained by Budweiser, totally free of charge, guaranteed ice-cold. Responsible parents would avoid the beer fountains and bring a thermos of water, but a lot of parents would just let their kids drink from them, right? And even very responsible parents would probably let their kids drink from them occasionally, because we forgot the thermos, and it's right there and it's free.
Raising non-drinking kids in that world would be harder than in this one. Everything you said about "teaching self-control" and the importance of parental effort would still be true, but it would also be true that when kids in that world start drinking earlier than in ours, it's not solely the parents' fault.
That probably sounds like a ridiculous example, but I think it's pretty analogous to schools showing Youtube videos. My kids had never heard of youtube before they saw it in their second grade classroom, and I'm not thrilled about it, but I get it, because it's right there and it's free. Raising kids is hard no matter what, but the fact that the world's biggest and best source of good educational content also happens to be riddled with crap makes it harder.
Not everything is like that. The library doesn't have Stephen King mixed in with the picture books. The Disney channel isn't also Pornhub. The parks don't have beer fountains. That's the difference.