Preventing the need for alternative care

From UN Alternative care document
IV. Preventing the need for alternative care
38. States should ensure opportunities for day care, including all-day schooling,
and respite care which would enable parents better to cope with their overall
responsibilities towards the family, including additional responsibilities inherent in
caring for children with special needs.

A strange request for states. From a state perspective, educating the children in a state school is more beneficial to the state's goals. How many parents have run into conflicts with the state education system. The typical problem is religious views versus the secular approach of the state. This conflict happened in the Marxist states and now in the secular US.

The question is really, what do parents need to cope with? The state would want productive adults to contribute to the economy. Caring for the children with day care and all day schooling should enhance the state's objectives. Hopefully, the family benefits from this approach. From personal experience, I found mom at home to be the best model.

Injury update

Well, Sveta is giving me electrical therapy and it seems to be helping. I thought I was going to have to postpone or even give up this effort. The hardest part is not re-injuring myself. I can hurt myself sleeping if I have an arm in a bad position. The gym presents challenges, but I am adjusting my routines.

Un and punishment of children

Another interesting find from the Convention on the Rights of Children.

Article 2.2 "States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all

forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or

beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members". How do we define punishment and separate from discipline? Seems to be a matter of definition.

UN and abortion

An interesting quote from the United Nations on the Rights of Children.
 “Whereas the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth” (United Nations General Assembly, 1959).
There is no mention of abortion. It states that children should have safeguards and care before birth. That phrase plus legal protection indicates that children should not be aborted; it is a violation of their rights. Notice how many countries ignore this statement for convenience.

True orphans versus social orphans

According to UNICEF figures, only 10.7% of orphans have lost both parents. They are the true orphans, while the others are social orphans. When we think of 89.3% of the estimated 140 million orphans as having one parent, it makes an interesting situation. How many are abandoned, how many parents have lost parental rights, and perhaps other factors such as poverty, migration, or children who run away or are abducted into human trafficking.

Forward progress

I am making good progress on the orphan model article. I had to adjust my mind mapping. I need to include negative factors such as PSTD, RAD-Reactive attachment disorder, ADHD, and FAS-Fetal alcohol syndrome into the diagram. Also I flipped causes with types i.e. true orphan and social orphan. Still it is a very complicated web of topics as I write. Sometimes I find research that fits in two or more categories. This should be a good work when finished.

Abandoned Faith

I began reading the text on millenials. Quite a lot to digest. Everybody panics over the loss of Christians when they become adults. I remember in my 20s-many many moons ago, a pastor told me that he was glad to see me in church. He commented how we raise them in the faith and they disappear in their 20s for various reasons. Most come back when they get married and have children.

Abandoned Faith: Why Millennials are Walking Away and how You Can Lead Them Home

Alex McFarland, Jason Jimenez

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2017