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Description
Many of us treat children as the property of their parents. In fact, if a child or even teenager runs away in the United States, the police arrest the child, rough them up, and return them to their parents, legally their owners. If parents are abusive, they become property of the state.

Even on a smaller scale where a parent shows off "my child" like a trophy, children are far too often seen as possessions rather than as what they are: people.

We were all once children and childhood has expanded to include early adulthood, now known as being a teenager, so this mindset affects us all. When we look down on those younger than us, it's often simply because others looked down on us when we were younger and others tell us it's fine. Thus we're perpetuating a cycle.

But we are all thinking, feeling human beings, regardless of how long we happen to have been on this planet. We all matter, every life no matter if we happen to be this age or that or have the mental capacity generally associated with this age or that. We are our own person.

So, if you have a child, don't think of that child as "my child" in the sense you own them. That mindset is what makes people avoid adoption because they see adopted children as "someone else's child". Instead, understand that you are just another human being, like the child, not an owner or owned. No, you are a unique soul with the privilege of caring for another unique soul different from you as you both mature as a person beside one another.

Description
Many of us treat children as the property of their parents. In fact, if a child or even teenager runs away in the United States, the police arrest the child, rough them up, and return them to their parents, legally their owners. If parents are abusive, they become property of the state.

Even on a smaller scale where a parent shows off "my child" like a trophy, children are far too often seen as possessions rather than as what they are: people.

We were all once children and childhood has expanded to include early adulthood, now known as being a teenager, so this mindset affects us all. When we look down on those younger than us, it's often simply because others looked down on us when we were younger and others tell us it's fine. Thus we're perpetuating a cycle.

But we are all thinking, feeling human beings, regardless of how long we happen to have been on this planet. We all matter, every life no matter if we happen to be this age or that or have the mental capacity generally associated with this age or that. We are our own person.

So, if you have a child, don't think of that child as "my child" in the sense you own them. That mindset is what makes people avoid adoption because they see adopted children as "someone else's child". Instead, understand that you are just another human being, like the child, not an owner or owned. No, you are a unique soul with the privilege of caring for another unique soul different from you as you both mature as a person beside one another.