*For the record, I would like to say, I may rant and/or run off topic during this assignment because parents are a big topic for me, going from how to parent to the ways that modern day parents are wrong.*
Parents are the mold for the future. They take the clay that is children and they shape it in whatever way they think is best in order to create what they hope is a work of art. However, in most cases a work of art is nowhere to be found and it is only after the clay break that something of value can be found. In short, parents are doing their job wrong.
Now, let me go on the record as saying I love kids. I had a great childhood and I always wanted a little sibling one day and to eventually get married and have kids of my own. As a result, I don't think that all parents are horrible. It just seems to me that parents these days forgot what it was like to be kids and treat their children too much like an investment or an ice sculpture.
Many parents in my experience interning at my former elementary school were widely unaware of their children's life outside of their care. It was almost as if they only remembered they even had kids when they could see them. For instance, parents were unaware of what class or afterschool program their kids were in nine out of ten times. Even upon seeing theire kids at the end of the day and picking them up, they rarely said "Hi sweety, how was your day?" but you always hear "Come on, we're going home. Get going". While this doesn't mean or suggest that the parents don't ask it later, it does display the need parents seem to have to be in control of the situation and try and live through their kids instead of with their kids as friends.
Another thing that parents seem to forget is that kids have energy. Kids like to run, to play. They enjoy running around. Instead, since their children are investments to them, they don't want it to leave their sight, they have to constantly observe every action and make sure that their is no risk. However, with all good investments, you turn the best profit when there is the greatest risk. By hovering over your kids to make sure they don't do so much as scrape their knee, the investment, aka the child, becomes unable to sustain itself. This type of parenting is called helicopter parenting, and it's despicable and leads to weaker and more insecure children who know of nothing without their parents.
Now this may sound biased, but I truly feel that in most cases my parents were ideal. They were always there for me when I needed them, but they knew when I was capable of watching myself and would even just let me run around in the neighborhood alone with my friends as long as I checked in every now and then. I feel like this balance of independence and guidance was crucial in stabilizing my core and making me self-sufficient. In addition to this, there was a relatively consistent routine in my household, however there was always room for change, making it somewhat flexible, giving me a sense of control and never allowing me to feel caged in. While I did afterschool and spent a lot of time away from home and "mommy and daddy's watch", my parents would come on school trips as chaperones to balance it out. Every element of my childhood that I feel was successful was created through a sense of balance, having a lenient and a strict parent, having independence but knowing limits and having a guide.
Maybe if parents could take their noses out of the latest parenting book and spend time with their kids they would acquire such a sense of balance, but until then they will complain about the very things they buy their own children when they could just say no.
Sorry for rambling, but parents need to get their act together.
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