Young People--and Independence

There are periods in the lives of most young people when they are impatient with counsel and precautions, when they wonder why they have to be responsible to parents, why they cannot have complete independence. They wonder why their elders are so concerned about their conduct, their decisions, their activities, and their interests.

Some show of self-reliance is certainly to be encouraged, but no one is or can be completely free from accountability to others. And parents certainly cannot free themselves from accountability for their children—not even if they would. And young people cannot free themselves from responsibility to parents—not even if they would.

There are many reasons why this is so: One is a matter of natural affection. When we have reared and cherished and nourished others, when our hearts and our homes are for them, we cannot stand by and feel free from some sense of responsibility.

But there is yet another reason why young people and parents cannot free them-selves from responsibility for each other. Besides love there is the matter of law. It is said “Diogenes struck the father when the son swore.” The law holds parents accountable for their children in many ways, and a parent not only has the right but also the legal obligation to be concerned with his minor children even if and when they are seemingly self-sustaining. And even when a youngster can’t see of won’t admit the other reasons; he must admit the matter of law.

But quite beyond the limits of the laws that men have made, by a higher law we are all responsible to and for those whom God has given us. In a sense, there is no such thing as freedom from responsibility for any of us to any of us. And no rationalizing will remove the obligations of parents and young people to one another which youngsters (and those who are older also) must learn, least they feel a false freedom.