Girl sues dad over getting grounded.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/04/07/mtl-quebecgirl-sues-dad-0407.html

Here's a scary example of a court stepping in where parents disagree about a decision respecting their child. Following a divorce, the girl disobeyed her father respecting her Internet activities, and he grounded her from attending a school graduation trip. She went to her Guardian ad Litem and who brought her complaint to the court. The court decided that she was right, and on the trip she went.

This is an extreme example of what divorce does--it takes normal parental decisions out of the parents' hands and puts it in the hands of a judge. What worries many of us is that, given the trends of our nation and the world, it seems likely that there may be movements in the near future to allow judge's to but into parental decision making in increasingly more situations. Currently, the situations are somewhat rare (abuse, neglect, and divorce are the only ones that come readily to mind), and hopefully they'll remain so.

What's troubling about this situation in Canada is that normally, you woudn't think a judge would do this. The judge should have said, sorry, deal with it. Instead, he decided to claim he had authority over the case and had the right to decide what was best for the child. Indeed, it's hard to argue that somehow going on this trip was in her best interest as opposed to staying behind. I can think of no real standard he could possibly have used besides, "What would I have done as a parent? Would I have been as strict as this father?"

That's pretty ridiculous. It might not reflect poorly on the laws on the books, but it reflects poorly on the worldview of this judge. And the more you see decisions like that (and the Home-school divorce situation in North Carolina), the more worried you become over the twisted worldviews of the men and women who hold power over our lives.

edit: haven't had a chance to finish reading this article, but so far, it's interesting. It's on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which I've talked about before.