“Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society” is the theme of Law Day this year. Normally, this is not a topic you would think to find on a blog dedicated to motherhood, but what is more important to us as mothers than, as the U.S. Constitution states, “the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity?” After all, our posterity, meaning all future generations of people, includes our sons and daughters. Liberty itself seems like such a broad, all-encompassing word, but it can be narrowed down from the most important decisions you make for your family to the smallest of everyday actions.
First of all, liberty gives us the freedom to decide if we want to have a family at all. If we do have children, liberty gives us the freedom to choose our own birth plan. For some of you, it is a completely calm and natural water birth. For those of you I relate to more, your kid will enter the world while you are flying high as a kite on as many drugs as the doctor will allow. Then, free press gives us the right to join in the great debate about formula versus breastfeeding on social media, allowing us moms to feel we fit in somewhere, and we’re not alone.
As parents, free speech gives us the right to voice our opinions about issues that affect the happiness and safety of our kids the most. We can demand laws that keep our kids safe in daycare, which gives moms the freedom to work outside the home. As our kids grow older, we decide where they go to school and, through our state laws, even what they learn. We can rally against gun violence in schools on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol. At the same time, liberty allows us to teach our kids how to safely hunt in the woods of Cedar Creek.
Liberty allows us to teach our kids they have the right to dream big and be their true selves. Our daughters can be engineers, and our sons can be school teachers without anyone batting an eye. They can fall in love with whomever they want no matter the person’s race, gender, or nationality. No matter how our kids identify, and even though we still have a long ways to go as an accepting society, there is more acceptance in the world than there ever has been before.
We often think of laws in terms of restricting our personal liberties, but the point of law has always been to strive for justice while protecting our free society. What more do we want for our kids than a free society where they can be accepted for who they are and reach their full potential? While we still have a long ways to go, as parents we can continue to demand laws that both protect our kids and allow them to be free.
