And some parents do not even manage to feed, clothe or accommodate their own children, of course. Not to mention that this is a pretty low bar by which to judge parenthood.
One's family is not only expected to treat one well, it is enjoined from not doing so, socially and in extreme cases legally. Although in fact, in legal terms, the bar for acceptable behaviour within a family is actually lower than outside; if you tried permitted physical chastisement on a random stranger, it would constitute assault. Likewise, there are proposals to outlaw between adults the kind of emotional abuse that goes unchecked within families.
But basically, I think the metaphor collapses as soon as one looks at the nature of the familial bond vs that of the bond to location of birth. One is based on (hopefully reciprocated) love, primarily, with a backing of social expectation should that fall short. The other is simply a grid reference - or at best, a set of assumptions about the character of the governmental entity inside which that grid reference happened to be included at the time... a relationship rather more similar in nature to that between a convict and a prison.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2015-07-02 06:28 pm (UTC)One's family is not only expected to treat one well, it is enjoined from not doing so, socially and in extreme cases legally. Although in fact, in legal terms, the bar for acceptable behaviour within a family is actually lower than outside; if you tried permitted physical chastisement on a random stranger, it would constitute assault. Likewise, there are proposals to outlaw between adults the kind of emotional abuse that goes unchecked within families.
But basically, I think the metaphor collapses as soon as one looks at the nature of the familial bond vs that of the bond to location of birth. One is based on (hopefully reciprocated) love, primarily, with a backing of social expectation should that fall short. The other is simply a grid reference - or at best, a set of assumptions about the character of the governmental entity inside which that grid reference happened to be included at the time... a relationship rather more similar in nature to that between a convict and a prison.