See, the parents aren’t vetted by the government and so might be dangerous pedophiles.  So the parents must watch from behind the fence while government-approved agents play with the children.

Parents are being banned from playing with their children in council recreation areas because they have not been vetted by police.

Mothers and fathers are being forced to watch their children from outside perimeter fences because of fears they could be paedophiles. ...

Children as young as five will instead be supervised by council ‘play rangers’ who have been cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau.

Councillors insist they are merely following Government regulations and cannot allow adults to walk around playgrounds ‘unchecked’.

This may sound like nothing more than government nanny-statism run amok, and certainly it is that and is concerning enough as is, but this is also the natural result of liberal or “progressive” views on child rearing.

The progressive view on families, perhaps originating with progressive education reformer John Dewey, has long head that family units were little more than anachronisms from agrarian societies, necessary to make small family farming possible and profitable, but not important in more modern, urban societies.  Thus, according to these “progressives,” parental involvement in the education and raising of children isn’t necessary and is secondary to the collective (read: the government’s) involvement.

When you start with that understanding about “progressive” views on family, you understand all the other policies that seek to make parents secondary in the lives of their children.  From laws allowing children to get abortions without telling their parents to more extreme examples like the one above not allowing parents to play with their children on playgrounds.