Since when has parenting been just another consumer choice?

AS a child I was particularly chilled by the story of Pandora’s Box. In Greek mythology Pandora and her husband Epimetheus are visited by Jupiter’s messenger, Mercury, who gives them a box for safe keeping.

They receive instructions not to open it, but Pandora is overcome by curiosity and is seduced by voices within the box begging for release.

Jupiter has malignantly crammed into the box all the diseases and vices that afflict humanity; and when the box is opened, these ills fly out and attack the world.