Laws Related to Parental Standards: Child Neglect by Parents

Abstract

Raising children is the major obligation of parents in both legal and ethical dimensions. Therefore, supervising children is an essential duty of parents. Law has been playing an important role to set up supervising standards with regards mainly to safety and welfare of the children. When there are solid legal guidelines, parents and people could recognize the minimum standard that the parents shall satisfy in order to be considered as prudent parents. Also, having such legal guideline could differentiate between “negligent acts” which are subjected to legal punishment and different parenting style of each family. In case of leaving child without reasonable supervision, there shall be the law that standardize which case is considered as “parental neglect” which is enable parents to use “reasonable and prudent parental care” to supervise children for their best interest according to the enacted child protection laws.