Nanny State Example
So you want proof that Massachusetts is a nanny state? Well how about the recently enacted law from the Department of Early Education and Care that requires that any child in a MA-licensed daycare who eats a meal or is there for more than four hours must brush his or her teeth? I can’t make this shit up! The government is now telling you when to brush your kids’ teeth!
Now to be fair, parents can opt out, but that’s not the point. Nor does it matter that it’s a “good thing to do” – we all know that oral hygiene is important and that kids need to be brushing their teeth. But you know what doesn’t work? The government mandating that we make our children brush their teeth. These kind of “nanny state” actions, these “we know what’s best for you and yours” attitudes from lawmakers, these kinds of freedom-sapping laws that seem so hard to argue against just because there’s good intentions behind them are the things that scare the crap out of me. And if people start blindly accepting or blithely adhering to them, then that gives invasive governments more motivation to pass other, more restrictive and tyrannical laws.
It truly is, in my opinion, a slippery slope. If the government can dictate that you must have your children’s teeth brushed, doesn’t that set a nasty precedent? Can they then dictate how often you bathe them (because your children come in contact with others at state-licensed day-care centers, so isn’t it in their purview), or when they must go to sleep, or the number of hours they must stay in bed, or what kind of “play” constitutes exercise and how much exercise a child must receive? Then what? What kind of clothes they must wear (much like the bike/rollerblading helmet laws)? What music to listen to? What books to read? What thoughts to think? When do we start becoming China?
I know it sounds like I’m overreacting, and maybe I am. The simple fact of the matter is that I do not want the government telling me how to live my life or how to raise my children. It doesn’t matter how well-intentioned the law is, it’s simply not the government’s job or business. We should be making these decisions ourselves. We should be accepting responsibility for our decisions and the decisions we make for our families. We shouldn’t be ceding responsibility for our lives and the lives of our family members to the government just because we’re too lazy, irresponsible and weak to think for ourselves. That’s accepting tyranny. Even when it’s disguised as “caring” it’s still tyranny, and that’s not what our country is supposed to be about.
