(P4)Final Paper: Parents & children

In today’s world, having a parent as a role model is not found so easily. We see very young children walking around town at late hours. Teenagers want to control, and do as they say. It becomes easier for the parent to let the child do as they please. In the long run I believe that it well affect both the parent and the child. “Where have all the Parents Gone?” by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead is appealing way to catch my interest. She writes about a social issue that people ignore or decide that they don’t care about. If parents would focus more time on their children, perhaps this world would be a better society.

Common sense seems to dictate that children should be with their parents. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead observes that parent’s authority is declining because children refuse to follow. Although she doesn’t state so directly, most parents do give the impression that they have no control for their children. Some parents buy their children expensive electronics, to buy the time back that is not spend with them. Not realizing that, children then learn how to manipulate their parents. The views between children and parents are disconnected, she admits.

In my personal experiences, my parents were too leant. They hardly discipline us. It was mainly my mother who did all the discussions, and my father would just stare. He never knew how to confront us. My mother would tell him to spank us, and he would grab a fly swatter and say, “careful, there is a fly, I am trying to kill.” And lightly hit us joking around. It always made my mother furious. My mother heart was has gentle, she cooked breakfast for us daily, make our beds and was never forced us to do anything that exhausted us. Chores were not demanded. My parents hid the ugliness of this world. When I moved to college to a different city, I was in pieces. I had to learn to commit to doing homework and a job at the same time.

I believe that parents don’t know the harm they are causing there children. It is not till they are adults, and then realized that there is more into parenting. My parents have admitted that they desire that things would’ve been different. It is what it is. They can no longer show us the correct paths. They wished they would have enforced school more. My parents crave that they could have help us find the passionate things we wanted to do. The times spend with children with parents are crucial. Especially times like this where children don’t live on farms, and feed pigs or bring fresh eggs from the chicken chook. It is a different time, with gangs to worry about, sex, and mad drugs.

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead has a point; we need to be closer to our children. Helping children in school, understanding them, and most important loving them unconditionally. Parents need to realize that children become teens too quickly. Before they know it there child is applying for a college. They need to grasp every valuable moment that they have. It is such a delicate moment. Society moves quick and those who are riding on a horse, might take a while before getting to their destination.