Blog 4

After investigating my topic and attempting to understand the differences in style of upbringing, I came to the conclusion that 1) In order to come up with the type of data I was hoping for, my research needed to be much more expansive, as I only asked questions of a small group of people (my friends) who have relatively the same background as me, and 2) The survey questions needed to be much more specific and numerous so that I could get a better idea of each individual’s family life and background.

If I had, say, asked the interview questions of people I didn’t know, I feel I would have gotten a better range of lifestyles and parenting techniques. The issue was that the questions I wanted to ask were quite personal, and I felt I couldn’t ask them of people I didn’t know. Luckily, I was still able to make some conclusions based on the information that I ended up with.

Most of the people I interviewed described decent, if not great, childhoods and family lives. Each of them was able to identify a lesson they had taken from home, whether the message was positive or negative. Most of them also said that they make decisions that they know their parents might have made or told them to make in the face of a challenge. Even Stephen, with answers that suggested a rocky childhood, agreed that he left for college with ideas about approaching life that he learned form his parents.

Emma reflected on difficulties with her parents as she reached her teenage years. It appears that most American teenagers struggle at this time and are most resistant to the values that their parents try to instill in them. Sometimes, arguments that come up between a parent and child can be quite detrimental to the relationship and therefore affect a lot of the choices that the child makes as they become more independent. In these situations, the child tends to make decision that are the opposite of what their parents might tell them, however this fact reinforces the idea that parents and the choices that they make when parenting have an extreme effect on their children.

Because I asked questions of people with relatively good family upbringings, they each were appreciative of the wisdom they felt they gained from their parents. All but one expressed appreciation as well for any advice they were given, and said that they will continue to seek help when dealing with difficult situations.

We see examples every day of the positive and negative effects that parents can have on their children. Still, there is evidence in every culture that children would not survive without the knowledge they receive as they grow.