The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.
-Denis Waitley
As we celebrate Independence Day in the USA, I thought it would be interesting to look at an
Exchange article, "
Independence or Interdependence?," in which Janet Gonzalez-Mena looks at these different goals in raising children. She concludes....
"Parents expect their children to be both independent and connected, but they work harder on what they believe to be most important. They leave to chance what they are less concerned about �" or they work on it hit or miss. Most parents never make a conscious decision about what to focus on because it comes from a deeply imbedded cultural value."
Janet's article is up for viewing in the
Exchange Ideas for You �" FREE! section at
www.ChildCareExchange.com.
This week you can buy five
Out of the Box Training Kits for the price of four!
Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsMorgantown, WV, United States
I wonder if anyone conducted a longitudinal study on the parenting styles of families that have more than one child in relation to the ideas presented in the whole article here. I know that my older sister is much more dependent upon my parents where I am not. I wonder if they fostered her interdepence more so than myself?
As Little Bear would say, "Interesting."
United States
This article is much too strongly one sided. It seems to indicate that parents are either raising their children to be strongly independent, without support from or care for other, or they are raising their children to be interdependent, with no concern for the child developing any abilities to care for themselves. There is a definite middle ground.
Most of the parents I have encountered in 5 years of working with children fall into the middle ground. They want their children to be able to dress and feed themselves, they want their children to be able to express their own views and interests. Yet they also want their children to be able to ask for help if its needed, and to offer help to others.
Parenting, much like any aspect of child care, is not an either/or issue. It is a serious of compromises encountered to guide a child to be the best adult they personally can be.
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