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Dutch against child who wants to “live freely”

Via the BBC / In light of the recent discussion:

Social workers in the Netherlands have taken legal action to try to stop a 13-year-old girl from sailing around the world on her own.

They want Laura Dekker to be made a ward of court, so that her parents, who support her plans, temporarily lose the right to make decisions about her.

It’s a similar case, but this time the government is stepping in.

A junior education minister recently told parliament that “a solo voyage around the world would not be in the best interests of the child”.

I’m with the government.

8 comments to Dutch against child who wants to “live freely”

  • Jul

    Yeah, but everyone already knows that the Dutch hate children. You know what else they do to kids? They guarantee them access to basic health care. Oh, the disrespect!

  • J

    I agree with you. I can’t believe it’s taken Crazy Lady so long to find this post and write a 30,000 word essay about how the child is being oppressed.

  • disenchanted

    Sigh.

  • I’m with J – I’m surprised crazy “children are just little adults” lady hasn’t done this. If she does, I live close enough I can go slap her.

    Wait, it wouldn’t be worth the effort because then I’d simply be against her freedom of expression and she’d try to narrow my ability to make comments to her own designated “free speech zone”, after telling me I had to pay her share of the national tax burden.

  • Prashanth M

    A child cannot be a little adult, if so, then why call it a child? Imagine the other generalities that could be made with the “little adult” logic…the possibilities are horrendous!

    I guess the child can wait for some more years, earn money by her own (which is true freedom), buy a boat and set off to find the edge of the world, just to find again that we are not free!

  • I’ve got a 13 yr old at home and there’s NO way I would ever let him do anything like this no matter how skilled he was. The parents are nuts.

  • J

    Update: She’s been taken ordered into state care.