HW 57 - Parenting 101

I was about to say that i don't think that there such a thing as bad parenting, but sadly there is. Some people think their problems are all their parents fault and others don't have complaints. I think the connection between the people who complain about their parents and the people who don't complain about their parents is that for the complainers, there is too much freedom and equality between them. I think that the jobs for the parents is that they control their children but still treat them as equals. The parents can be parents and friends at the same time, and no its not really cool to have your mom and dad as your friend, but as out of context as it may be for a teenager to say, they are still the people who have your back no matter what and no matter how much they may hold you down, they are still looking out for your best interest. It may be uneducated of me to say, because i don't know another way of looking at it, but that's at least how i feel about it.

I think that the things my parents did were pretty successful. I don't know if everyone would agree, but i know that by raising me to want to work hard and do my work to the best of my ability and at least try, made me somewhat successful. They raised me to respect them and respect the people around me. I don't know if that worked out all that well but i do know that the ideals stuck with me. What they really did stress though is that i always work hard. That has stuck with me. I have always tried to do my work and to do it well. I know that i don't always get an A for effort but i never just give up. I think that is very important and that is what made my parents successful at what they did.

I read 3 articles, the first article that i read was "When Parenting Theories Backfire." I thought that this article was both funny and sad at the same time. I thought it was funny because of how the process slowly broke down and how the plan started to backfire on the woman and her family. The reason that i thought this was sad, which justifies my reason for it being funny, is that this woman took advice on how to raise her OWN children from someone else, this isn't that disappointing, what is disappointing is that she followed the theory entirely and because of that her children disobeyed her and the plan backfired. She didn't raise the children like she would have wanted to, she did it how someone else told her too. That is what i thought was sad.

The second article i read was "What Attachment Parenting is-The 7 Baby B's." I liked this article and didn't like it at the same time. I thought it was really good for when you start to raise a baby, but it doesn't address what happens as the child matures. Do you continue to raise it the same and give in to its every whim? I thought that there had to be some sort of separation and power difference. The baby cant grow up thinking its in charge, there does need to be an authority figure in its life. I like raising the baby and making sure that it knows that it is loved. But i don't like that the baby will never see the difference in power. But that is for later i guess.

The third article i read was the wikipedia article entitled "Ferber Method." It was about how you can't show the baby affection. You need to put it to bed, but you can't show it any affection while you do. You walk out of the room and don't walk back in for 5 minutes no matter how much the baby cries. This is teaching the baby to learn that it needs to live without you and not depend on you when it is in need. I think this method can be effective but it can also teach the baby to be distant from people and not trust them. It can show the baby and instill in it that people aren't to be trusted and that they wont do anything but hurt it. I think that the long term effects of this method can cause nothing but bad things to a child. It will be more likely to follow the herd because it doesn't know how to resist, only accept.

These are my ideas. In no way am i fit to be a parent at this present moment, but everyone has their own ideas on how a child should be raised.