ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature and content of both the legal and moral obligations of parents. Stewardship is a helpful concept with respect to parental obligations, then, because there are many ways in which parents, in fulfilling those obligations, are acting as stewards of their children. As stewards tend not to focus on asserting their rights in the parent-child relationship, but rather they generally place a higher priority on the interests of the children in their care. It investigates both the negative and positive moral obligations that parents have, as stewards, to their children. Indoctrination constitutes a failure of stewardship obligations to society, because indoctrinated children often become narrow-minded or irrational adults. Parents are obligated to provide an emotionally stable environment, and to relate to the child in ways that foster emotional stability. The parent-child relationship is a significant feature of the lives of many people.
