Comment: Response to 'Ending the Double Standard: Equal Rights for Children'

It is probably best that I acknowledge quite candidly at the outset that I am not a philosopher by trade or ambition. Nevertheless, when I first read Mr. Cohen’s very interesting paper with some care, I resolved to attempt to prepare the sort of philosophical response his paper warrants. I resolved to attempt to include a number of neat philosophical distinctions and a good bit of sage philosophical advice. Now I mind telling you that my initial attempts to draft such a response always seemed unsatisfactory and incomplete, that the notes on which the distinctions and wisdom began to take shape were often brooded over and discarded, and that the reasons for this frustration were not related to Mr. Cohen’s paper as much as to the concrete reality of living with three children. The chores and pleasures of parenting, tucking my five year old into bed, listening to my eight year old rehearse and destroy a little piece for the piano, and talking over a math problem with my twelve year old, seemed constantly to dash to pieces my pretentions about philosophizing about children. I began to realize that I am both jealous and suspicious of my authority as a parent and that neither my jealousies nor my suspicions are easily rendered into logical justifications. I am jealous and suspicious of the authority I exercise over them, to distribute snacks, to settle disputes, to punish violence and injustice.