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The Terror of Explicitness: Philosophical remarks on the idea of a parenting contract

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  • Title:
    The Terror of Explicitness: Philosophical remarks on the idea of a parenting contract
  • Author: Lambeir, Bert ; Ramaekers, Stefan
  • Subjects: Baier ; contract ; parenting ; rights and duties
  • Description: Recently the concept ‘parenting contract’ or ‘parenting promise’ has been launched and developed. The idea behind this concept goes back to a specific understanding of recent developments regarding the so-called nuclear family and the child-rearing that is supposed to take place there. This promise or contract explicitly takes as its point of reference The Convention of the Rights of Children, and is meant primarily to protect children’s right, c.q. the right to a proper upbringing. An important consequence of introducing such concepts is that the nature of the parent-child relationship is drawn into (if not occluded by) the discourse of rights and duties. Evidently, there is not much wrong in defending the rights of children, and at first sight there seems to be a certain obviousness to the idea of parents explicitly engaging themselves with respect to their children’s upbringing. But something of the uniqueness of the parent-child relationship seems to be left unspoken in the language of rights and duties. This will be shown in this paper by pointing out what follows from the introduction of the idea of a parenting promise or contract: if we mean what we say, what, then, follows? And, after realizing that, do we still want to mean what we say? It will be argued that by bringing the parent-child relationship into the discourse of rights and duties by installing the practice of expressing a parenting promise, this relationship is narrowed down to the confines of a contractual agreement. What comes to stand foreground in the parent-child relationship is a defense of (parental versus the child’s) interests. By drawing on the work of Annette Baier, it will be shown that this has considerable consequences in terms of trust/distrust and parental engagement. It is questioned whether the concept of parenting contract brings about the positive climate of engagement which is said to promote. status: published
  • Creation Date: 2007
  • Language: English
  • Source: Lirias (KU Leuven Association)
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