Parenting

What is the purpose of parenting? To protect and prepare a child to survive and thrive in the world they are going to live in (Popkin). I think this is a very great start in understanding the importance of parenting and why we parent and can be a great start in forming a way of how we parent and how we are going to parent. Parents often use the technique of rewarding "good" behavior and punishing "bad" behavior and this creates a parenting of the child being inferior and parents being superior. This perception of each other in a parent-child relationship can be destructive and it lacks respect on both sides of the relationship.

In class we also discussed the importance of teaching children the principle of choices, consequences and the result or outcome.
CHOICES + CONSEQUENCES = RESPONSIBLITY
I think this is one of the most important things that parents can teach their children and this goes along perfectly with the purpose of parenting as this helps to prepare a child to thrive in the world. When we give children choices in their life they feel that they have power over themselves and it also helps to prepare them to make decisions for themselves further in their life. When they have choices that empowerment over themselves helps to create a sense of worth and understanding of themselves.   Along with given them choices and making decisions for themselves, also having them comprehend and understand that every choice, good or bad, has consequences. We discussed the different kinds of consequences that we need to be aware of as parents and future parents. Natural consequences is a consequence that happens naturally with no intervention and is beneficial for a child to experience what happens based on their choices. Natural consequences are best EXCEPT for when it is:
1) Too Dangerous - will bring them severe physical harm that is preventative.
2) Too far into the future - the consequence they need to learn won't be evident until it's too late.
3) Affecting Others - If the consequence will not just affect them, but others around them.
I find this interesting. I have always thought that the natural consequences that occur were best so that one may learn and grow from that, however the other consequence is the logical consequence in which a parent is in control of the situation but the child still receives the consequence just in a safe environment. Now this can be difficult but essential at times for them to learn the consequence but be in a safe environment. As parents it is their responsibility to teach these principles to their children so that they may have the skills needed to be a citizen of the world who is resilient to the adversities around them, and teaches them to make good decisions in their lives.