By Jayme Franklin
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Parents who want to protect their children’s innocence are tired of being told they are manufacturing a controversy simply by objecting to what their children are being exposed to.
That is why Michigan’s new Senator, Abdul El-Sayed’s recent 60 Minutes interview deserves attention beyond the midterms. The exchange touched on a question that will remain long after the campaign signs come down: Who gets to set boundaries for our children?
Asked about conflicts involving parental authority, schools, and transgender participation in sports, El-Sayed described these social disputes as “manufactured.” His response turned to the internet and the difficulty of shielding children from information their parents find objectionable.
But the existence of the internet does not settle what belongs in a classroom, how girls’ sports should operate, or whether parents deserve a meaningful voice in their children’s education.
It certainly does not relieve adults of their responsibility to establish boundaries.
As a mother, I find his premise insulting. Apparently, because inappropriate material exists somewhere online, parents are supposed to accept that protecting childhood innocence is an outdated ambition. Absolutely not.
My job is to decide what my children are ready to encounter, supervise their access to technology, explain our family’s values, and protect them while they are too young to protect themselves. The fact that I cannot control every influence makes that responsibility more urgent.
Children do not need unrestricted access to the world simply because the world is available on a screen. And parents should be able to expect schools to support that responsibility.
What frustrates me most about the “manufactured” culture-war argument is how conveniently it dismisses the substance of parents’ objections. When a school changes its approach to sex and gender, or a sports organization changes eligibility rules, families have every right to question those decisions.
Those are real policies with real consequences. Calling the resulting disagreement a distraction does not resolve it.
I believe girls deserve athletic opportunities that account for biological differences between the sexes. I believe women and girls deserve privacy in changing rooms. I believe classroom materials should be appropriate for children’s ages, and parents should know what their children are being taught.
None of those positions requires hostility toward another person. They require adults to weigh competing interests and explain where they draw the line.
Yet too often, the response to parents is an accusation: You are intolerant and bigoted.
There is also something deeply patronizing about telling families that cultural concerns distract them from their economic interests. Parents can worry about grocery prices and what happens at school. We can want affordable housing and fair competition for our daughters. We can care about healthcare and whether public institutions respect our religious convictions. We are perfectly capable of caring about more than one thing.
For Christian parents especially, raising children involves obligations that no election or economic agenda can erase. We are responsible for teaching our children what we believe is true, helping them develop judgment, and preserving room for them to grow up without every adult controversy being pushed into their childhood.
That requires both honest conversations and sensible limits.
Of course children will eventually encounter ideas their parents reject. Preparing them for that reality is part of parenting. But preparation happens over time, with care, guidance, and attention to a child’s maturity. It is not an argument for abandoning boundaries altogether.
I refuse to accept that wanting those boundaries makes me unreasonable.
Parents did not invent the stakes of these debates. Our children live with the decisions that schools, politicians, and institutions make. We deserve direct answers about those decisions.
And we will keep asking—even when the people seeking our votes would prefer to change the subject.
After graduating from notoriously leftwing UC Berkeley in 2020, Jayme founded The Conservateur to serve and represent conservative women. Jayme’s previous work experience in the conservative movement includes the United States Senate, the Trump Campaign, the Trump White House, and Fox News. Jayme now lives with her husband, Drake Franklin, and their daughter, Vivienne, in Washington, DC.
