Manners Maketh Dad.

The world is going to hell in a handbasket, and it's all because of those dadgum dads shirking their duties! Caleb Harris, a conservative dad, is fed up with this new wave of fatherhood where dads are taking a backseat to their kids and letting the youth run wild. In his latest column, he lays out the case for why this "abdication of responsibility" is not only bad for the family but also a slippery slope to tyranny. Harris writes:

"The ideas that teenagers are some new species that a father couldn’t know anything about or the assumption that kids know what’s best for themselves or that outsourcing their development (mental, physical, spiritual, etc.) to government institutions and the internet is best — may be common, but they reek of passing the buck."

Harris argues that dads need to man up and take charge, even if it means going into uncharted territory. After all, as Doc Brown said, "Where we're going, we don't need roads." But, unlike the adventurous Doc, these dads are more like Chicken Little, crying that the sky is falling and running for cover.

"According to famed Gulag survivor and Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, this sort of 'abdication of responsibility' is a precursor to tyranny. [...] Intellectual leadership? Well, parents don’t think they have any and gladly yield to the younger generation to raise their kids for them."

So, dads, listen up! Put down the video games, step away from the comic books, and get your act together. Those teenage years are a-comin', and it's time to wobble that wobbler and lead like a real man! Harris and his wife sure think so, anyway (Pflugerville, y'all!).

Harris and his wife live in Pflugerville with their seven children. Please email comments or suggestions for future columns to thoughtsforcaleb@gmail.com._