Introduction
Parenting is an aspect of supporting a person to develop socially, emotionally, education wise and physically from a child to an adult. Parenting usually exists in an individual biologically related to the infant in question, but in some instances, biological relationship is not a big deal in child bearing. Raising a child to be a responsible adult in the society involves the whole society as other family members, neighbors and the governments besides the biological parents take part. Parental skills are vital because they shape the behavioral appearance of the child in the society, and parental skills could be good or bad depending on the outcome of the behaviors of the child. Good parental skills justify a good parent and bad parental skills show a poor parent. Various factors affect the way parents raise their children in the society such as economic wellbeing of the family and social class. The above two factors have a great impact on the future of the child in the society, who could either become a responsible person or a liability to the society.
In the recent years, the aspect of parenting has significantly changed from the traditional methods of raising children. Traditionally, both parents of the child took part in parenting if, in any case, they were alive. Additionally, the surrounding members of the society also took part in parenting as the societal parenting ensured a responsible society. However, things have changed in the wake of globalization and the parental skills have taken a new path alike. Nowadays single parents and non-biological parents have become common an aspect that people rarely experienced in the past. The changing forms of family dynamics in child rearing have raised concerns on several experts because impacts experienced by the individuals and the society.
Traditional Forms of Parenting
In the traditional society, both the fathers and mothers were present in raising their children in many cases. The extended families and nuclear families were instrumental in shaping the children’s behaviors. The support led to the development of society with responsible members because people took child rearing with ultimate caution. The cases of parents abandoning their children were unheard off because otherwise those caught in the act attracted heavy penalties. Strict religious and cultural values in that period ensured that parenting was in accordance with the laws. The values provided a favorable environment for children to develop strong positive moral, emotional, intellectual, and physical aspects. The societal parenting enhanced unity and tranquility amongst the individuals and the cases of conflicts were few. Parents taught children to respect and obey their elders regardless of family ties thus making them develop a strong behavioral admirable to everybody. The strong aspect of parenting in the traditional societies had a positive impact to the society in general thus steering social and economic development. Therefore, strong parenting skills were vital in any society as they shape the future of the individuals and the society alike because people are the society (Chacko, Anil, et al 206-218).
Factors Affecting Parenting
However, as the world develops to be increasingly dynamic society the traditional parenting forms are fading gradually. Several factors have made the parenting role take a new shape in the current society. The economic aspect is one of the main factors as the new world has forced people to work for them to survive. Several parents currently spend much of their time at work or in their businesses, and they give very little attention to their families. Psychologists argue that fathers have assumed the role of peripheral parenting because they have to work to raise their families. Mothers have no option to raise their children on their own while the fathers are away and hence children while developing will fill more attracted to their mothers than their fathers will. Traditionally, the father figure was important to assume the head of the family, and the presences of fatherhood gave the feeling of family security and respect in the society. Additionally, the mothers too are increasingly turning to the working class society leaving parenting roles to teachers and nannies. There is no doubt that work has affected the parenting aspect and the skills of raising children in the current society seem to dwindle (Lamb 98-111).
Additionally, technology has affected parenting because it has changed the social domain and the aspect of interaction have increased. People have adopted new cultural aspects and dropped their traditional ones thus affecting the way people pay raise their children. Globalization has created a new culture of social classes where people associate themselves with certain groups. The social classes in return affect the parental skills as parents try to adapt to raise their children in a manner they think that is in line with their social standards. The other factor that has contributed to the change of parenting is excessive freedom leading to personal ego. Nowadays many people have preferred to be single parents whether as single father or single mother. This new form of parenting is worrying because the negative impacts of single parenting are already haunting the individuals who underwent this form parenting and the society. On the other hand, deaths have changed the form of parenting with some children put under the government custody while have non-biological parents to take care of them. The new shape of parenting has changed the behavior aspects of the members of the societies (Gwen, par. 1-3).
Modern Forms of Parenting
Therefore, the current trends, some that are mentioned above, have been instrumental in shaping the parental aspects. Currently, single parenting is common in many societies because of increased rates of divorces. The parents have to assume the full role of mother and the father figure to their children and in many cases, the parenting is not successful, owing to the children negative behaviors after they develop into adults. The other so-called modern parenting skill is the non-biological parenting, where people or the local authorities raise the children as if they were their own. This happens where children have lost their biological parents or the parents are not able to take care of their children due to some unavoidable circumstances. The third modern form of parenting is where both parents are working, and they hire nannies to look after their children. The physical gap between the parents and their children has become extremely wide thus making the sociologist counselors to intercept to save this problem of parenthood (United States. Census Bureau 1-5).
Individual Impacts of the Modern Parenting Practices
The modern parenting forms have greatly affected the individuals emotionally, physical, intellectually and socially. For instance, in single parenting the parents have to work to provide full support to their children. While doing so, they dwell too much on some mandates that seem to be important and overstep on some others. The absence of parental surveillance on the children exposes children to risks of potential misconducts. Since the parents are absent to instill discipline, the children adopt those ill behaviors, which their carrying on with them until they are grown up thus giving birth to irresponsible adults in the society. The individuals involve themselves in cases such as robbery, prostitution, and drug abuse. Similarly, parents who spend most of their time away from their children due to work or other reasons are likely to experience moral degradation with their children. Physical presence of both parents if possible is important because as the children are developing they need moral and ethical guidance to enable them to interact positively with the other members of the society (Conners-Burrow, Nicola, et al 1120-1129).
Additionally, the modern parenting techniques do not guarantee children complete parental love and care. This is because of the distance between the parents and their children as they have taken other things to be more important their families. Children who lack proper parental care suffer from depression and often segregate themselves from the rest of the society. The children are always dull; their performance in education is substandard, and many of them end up dropping out of school to lack of appropriate guidance. Furthermore, the cases of homicide and suicide have increased drastically, and many of them attribute to psychological trauma. Children are murdering their parents with some reportedly committing suicide because of domestic conflicts. Many children have grown to become a burden to the society, as their heinous acts affect everybody in one way or the other directly or indirectly. The people could put such vices under control if they if they offer the required emotional support to their children. Parents should train their children to appreciate themselves to avoid issues of psychological and emotional trauma (Uji, Masayo, et al 293-302).
Moreover, the unity that between children and parents is slowly vanishing leaving the society with many worries. Many parents have separated with their children to avoid the risk of harm between the two parties. The rift among the members of the families due to frequent conflicts subject parents to stresses and sometimes they lose their lives. Children do not have a slight idea of respects towards their elders, as it was the case in the past. They do not look after their parents when they become of age because they see no value that they parents added to their lives. The erosion of morals among the children in the society is something that people should allow the nature to take its course. People should take immediate measures to avert the looming problem before it gets out of their control because with globalization new aspects would crop up. It would be advisable for the current parenting systems to undergo a review to avert the issues of morality for a better future because things that affect the families also affect the society in general (Leung and Shek 200-213).
Societal Impacts of the Modern Parenting Practices
On the societal front, modern parenting has made the society take a new dimension that is negative and obviously oppressive. A family is a small domain if the greater society and felonies committed at family level will trickle down to; the larger set up. Firstly, the quality of education has deteriorated because the soaring numbers of school dropouts. This means that the illiteracy level is on the rise this go along with the rate of interdependence. The current society requires smart brains, and if people continue to be defiant with the education, these brains will be inadequate. Additionally, the crime rates are rampant because many people have become lazy and have turned to illegal activities that bring easy money. Among the crime activities in the society is prostitution, robbery with violence, radicalization of the youths and drug trafficking to mention but few. All these behaviors originate from the poor parenting practices that people have adopted, as they were rare in the past. Lack of parental care and poor disciplinary system in the families has made the society pay a bitter price for lack of concern (Bornstein, par. 39-40).
Finally, the society will continue to suffer if it continues to assume the poor parenting practices existing in many families. Death rates related to moral decay are on the rise as people succumb from sexual related diseases. People cannot overlook the issues of teenage pregnancies because they will worsen the current situation in the future, as teenage parents possess little or no parental skills thus exposing the newborn children to dangers of poor parenting. Moreover, the leadership qualities have dwindled, and the world has become volatile because of the rising cases of insecurity. The societies are living in fear since enemies could strike anytime and hence killing the virtue of serenity among the societies. Poor leadership qualities originate from poor parenting activities because the parents have the dominion of nurturing leadership qualities from family level. The modern parenting systems have resulted into a rotten society because the immoral elements at the family level have entered into the larger society, and if people do not address the root cause of the problem, the society will continue to suffer (Bassett, Jonathan, and Timothy 447-462).
Individual and Societal Responsibilities
In the current trends, people and the societies in general have ignored their responsibilities posing allegation on the time factor. Several parents do not have enough time with their children similarly; the societal aspect of parent is long forgotten. Parents should teach their children on the ways to behave accordingly to become responsible people in the future. Lack of responsible care for children leads to irresponsible societies as one would find that people do not really care to know about the things that their neighbors are going through. The studies conducted about the modern parenting system a parenting behavior may give distinct results on children depending on age of those children, sex and inherited temperament. The parenting behavior has resulted into some children ending up in hospitals and occasionally parents due to domestic stresses. Several heart attack conditions and other stress related diseases have been rampant in the society. If families were organized like a traditional set ups some of the problems lack health problems and irresponsibility could not be in existence (Annual Reviews 1-27).
Conclusion
Parenting practices form an integral part of the society because the practices carried at family levels affect the society with equal magnitude. This shows that the two sets are inseparable as the society depends on the families. Good family practices would lead to an upright society while bad family practices would lead to a rotten society. Traditional parenting system followed religious and cultural aspects and for this reason, few cases of societal disorderliness existed. In the wake of globalization and the new technology, the parenting system took a new dimension that has landed the society into serious troubles. Several factors have affected the modern parenting system and occasionally making parents find it hard to create enough time to spend with their children, and such factors are work, education, and social class among others. These factors have brought negative impacts to both individuals and the society. Some of the effects of poor parenting are moral decay among the members of the society and lack of tranquility and leadership qualities in the society.
If the local authorities in the societies fail to address the incidence, it will cost troubles to the innocent future generations. However, some members of the society have intercepted into the issue by providing emotional support and psychological therapy to the affected members of the societies so that they do not propagate the problem to their off springs. Additionally, there are counseling groups that are offering parenting skills to the parents that could be inexperienced in that area. Moreover, religious and cultural leaders should at the frontline to encourage parents to turn to religion and the traditions that most had abandoned as platforms of proper parenthood. The aspect of societal parenting could be instrumental in molding unity and serenity in the world and could be a solution to the current worries affecting the societies. Therefore, it is important for people to realize the significance of family practices and the impacts they may have on the individuals and the society, as a society is simply a collection of families.
Works Cited
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