Parental Roles

Parenting in the Past

In previous generations, parents relied on ‘firm’ disciplinary practices and unquestioning obedience from their children

Why do you suppose that was?

Society’s Demands in the past

• In the past, society demanded strict obedience to authority – this even extended in to the home

• Development of self-discipline was a key concept

• Some forms of discipline would be classed as child abuse today

Society’s Demands Today

parents tend to be more democratic in their parenting todayChildren are shown more affection from parentsWhy is this?Parents take their parenting cues from the society in which they live

Parents’ Responsibilities

• One of the most important task every parent has is to ‘socialize’ their children

• This means that children need to ‘learn’ their culture and acquire their personality and personal values

• They need to learn how to function in society and the world around them

3 important aspects of socialization

• 1. what will the child’s attitudes and behaviours be to social institutions and cultural norms?

• 2. How do the people who are doing the socialization affect the individual?

• 3. How does socialization take place?

How do parents do this?

• By influencing and shaping their behaviour• At the same time, children can also ‘socialize’

their parents!

2 preconditions for socialization

• 1. the child must have the physical capacity to learn

• 2. The child must live in a society that has values, norms, roles, institutions etc

Changing roles of Mom and Dad

• For centuries and in almost every culture in the world, women have been the primary caregiver to children

• However, that is beginning to change, particularly in North America, since more and more women are returning to the workforce after they have chidren

Changes in Father’s Roles

• This has led to some significant changes over the past 60 years

-in the past the father has been viewed as the ‘father of the family must be the master in his own house”

Dad was responsible for being the breadwinner

Fathers more involved

• In today’s society, fathers are more involved, right from the beginning – most take prenatal classes and are at their child’s birth

• Obviously, for the first year, dads play a very important ‘supporting’ role – moms are the ‘nurtures’ and dads look after mom

• There has been more research lately about the importance of a father in a child’s life

Society’s Acceptance• Is society ‘ready’ to accept the new roles that

fathers are undertaking – the nurturing, the care giving, that for centuries were the territory of mothers

• The text book speaks of a lack of role models for dads – they can’t look to their own fathers as the model

• It also mentions that dads are not treated ‘well’ by society – but this is changing – paternity leave being one example

How Do Fathers Fit In?

Read article “How do Fathers Fit In”? as well as page 318 in text book.

Write a journal entry on how the role of the father has changed.

(Please hand this in)