Most cultures view their kin very differently than we do here in the United States. The Eskimos, for example, kill their babies if they appear to be too weak to survive the harsh ways of living in Greenland, something that would be viewed as barbaric among Americans. Likewise, a person with Japanese background might be appalled by our new-age idea that a job or a friend could be held at the same level of importance as a family member.
In the United States, we put a high value on "good" parenting, and while adults seem to have very different ideas of what that might entail, there are a few ground rules that every parent is expected to follow. For instance, a good parent does not abuse his or her child. The "future leaders of America" will not be harmed without jail time- a social rule that is enforced by federal law. Adults are also expected to support their children for 18 consecutive years in order to assure that the child is well looked after, educated, and will become a functioning member of society. In many cultures, parents barely give their children a word of advice before marrying them off at age 15, while Americans feel they must walk their "babies" through everything, only letting go when they know for sure that their children will survive on their own.
Research suggests that a healthy parent-child relationship is most beneficial to the growth of our country and its children. America has also decided, apparently, that children should live with their parents until they are 18, should have limited rights until then, and that all of these rules are whats best for every child in the United States. Yet each parent has their own ideas about how their children should be raised, and implements rules and punishments the way they see fit, despite what our society has deemed as "right." A child might be smacked because she ate a cookie before dinner, whereas many parents choose to discipline their kids without physical punishment. I have multiple friends whose parents join them in drug experimentation. In my household however, having a conversation about drugs was so rare that I thought there was a difference between marijuana, weed, dope, and pot until my sophomore year in high school...
From my gathered survey data, I would like to learn about some of the different ways my peers have been raised and how effective they think their parents were in teaching them how to lead successful lives. I will be asking students questions about their specific types of upbringing, how similar they believe they are to their parents, the best lessons they learned from their parents, how they learned those lessons, and so-forth. I look forward to learning about different ways to raise and teach children in American culture, and about my peers' views on how their lives have turned out because of their individual upbringing.
I look forward to reading more about your topic! I agree that there are definitely vast differences between parenting styles in America even though we do seem to agree on a few things. I think it will be interesting and beneficial that you will look at this from a child's point of view rather than a parent's. I am curious to see if most children, no matter how different their parent's have raised them, are content with how they grew up. It will also be cool to see which lessons they thought were most significant.
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