So, when did schools obtain the right to take away parental rights?

When my daughter grumbled into the kitchen this morning she asked me if she could have some juice in her water jug instead of just water. She said, "Some of the other kids bring juice, and I want some too."

I opened the fridge and grabbed the juice and poured it into the jug she held out for me. Then my wife entered the room and said, "You can't take juice to school."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because," she said, "The teacher has a policy that kids can't drink juice because it will rot their teeth."

"Well, that..."

"DON'T...!!!" my wife motioned her hand out as to say, "STOP! Don't go there!" She didn't need to, because I planned to stop anyway. Yet instead of assuming I knew (as many men would do), she said, "KK needs to learn to follow the rules. The rules in her class is no juice."

"Well, that's a bunch of bullshit!" I wanted to say, yet held my mouth. Wife was right about the rule following. Yet I was frustrated nonetheless. I felt trapped. I felt as though I were living in a socialistic nation.

Since when does the school have a right to protect my daughter from herself. Their job is to protect one kid from another kid, yet not to protect kids from themselves. Protecting kids from themselves is the job of the parent. That's me. I'm the parent. It's my job to care for my daughters teeth. If I want to be stupid and let my kid have juice and rotting teeth, that's my right.

When I was a kid we weren't allowed to chew gum. This was a rule because the noise from gum disturbed the class, and kids were sticking old gum under the desks and destroying school property. This rule was to protect kids from each other and protect teachers and janitors (they used to be called janitors) from kids.

Yet now teachers and schools and principals and superintendents and school boards and politicians have decided that parents are too stupid to protect their children from themselves, so they have to do it for us. I'm stupid, they think. You're stupid, they think. So they must protect your (our -- mine) children from themselves.

Schools are now doing our job. What disturbs me most about this is not even my wife was concerned about this. Personally, I'm ticked. The schools not only have the power to put me in jail if I don't send my kids to school, but to tell me how to parent. There should be a public outcry, yet there isn't.

Have we become so complacent as a nation, so busy raising our kids and working to support our families, that we missed when our rights were taken away? That appears to be what has happened.