"Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation." These words by C. Everett Koop, Former US Surgeon General, encapsulate the tremendous responsibility of parents when it comes to raising their children.
Parents have the right to raise their children. However, this right comes with a corresponding responsibility to supervise and control their children and to develop their child’s holistic being--moral, mental, physical, and emotional--in order for the child to become a fully responsible individual in the community.
In line with this is the equally tremendous responsibility of owning up to your child's damages. Philippine law imposes a liability on the parents for their children’s acts or omissions which causes injury or damage to another. This is called vicarious liability. It's based on the parents’ authority and responsibility over their child. Because of this responsibility, there is an assumption that, when a child causes injury or damage, the parents were negligent in their duties, having failed in fulfilling their responsibility to control and supervise their child.
The following is a discussion on the vicarious liability of parents and other persons exercising parental authority:
(Photo by Kevin Cawley via Flickr Creative Commons)
