Essay #2 Cultural Analysis

Changes of parenting over time

American families today are not what they use to be. Parents these days are a lot more laid back and try to be more of a best friend to their child rather than a parent. The punishments that are given to children in today’s times aren’t as effective as they were in the past. The respect that is given from the children to the parent has decreased tremendously in the past fifty years. Some parents would rather drop their kid off at an extracurricular activity and enjoy their freedom for an hour or so rather than interacting in the life of their child and being involved in what they are doing. It is also more common for a kid to experience divorce between their parents and feel the effects of that more than in past generations.
Is the American society so scared of disappointing their children that they feel that they have to be a best friend figure rather than a parenting figure? When I was growing up my parents acted like parenting figures to me while I saw other kids parents trying to act like a best friend with them. I really despised it back then and wished that my parents were more like other peoples parents. Today I look back at how I was raised and I am very thankful that I learned right from wrong early in my childhood. Statistics show that kids that have parent figures rather than parents that are trying to be best friends have a better shot at succeeding in higher educations and in the job force. They are accustomed to having a boss figure in their day-to-day lives. This generation of parents are having children at such young ages that they are not able to experience the young adult hood life that they should, therefore they want to be involved in their kids life by being a best friend to make up for the loss of there young adult years. Today’s generation of parents believe it’s better to act a different way around their children to be closer with them, instead of being more of a role model for them. They want their kids to like them and want to be around them, so they display themselves in more of a friend figure to achieve this. Corporate punishment is frowned upon in todays generation when parenting a child. It is believed to be too violent for children, so what is more excepted is non physical types of punishment such as time outs, sitting around the table and talking about the situation, etc. In past generation’s spankings, the use of paddles or spoons, and rulers were expected for the parents to use to punish their child for doing something wrong. Corporate punishment was more useful because it is putting the thought into the kids mind that if they did something wrong they would get a spanking or corrected with a form of beneficial physical punishment. Kids in this generation do not have that fear of “if I do something wrong, then I am going to get a spanking “ therefore they will engage in more wrong behavior even if they know that it is wrong because they do not fear the consequences. In years past, parents were more concerned with raising non-self-centered, caring, obedient children, who conformed to society, instead of todays desire on building a child's self-determination, self-esteem and individuality. In past generations, children were expected to be at the dinner table at a certain time and to eat what was in front of them without complaining. If this didn’t happen it was considered being disobedient. The reason behind kids being obedient and listening to the parents is because the children respected their parents and would never think about disrespecting their parents, especially in certain situations. Kids now a days have no respect for their parents so therefore are going to do what ever they want when ever they want even if their parents tell them not to. Respect is something that the parents of this generation have lost when they try to best friends with their kids and are scared to punish them when they did