In this book, the author on the in-depth interviews and observations she made in a study of the middle-class, poor and working-class families. She intended to establish the impact of social class on the lives of children from these families. She discovered differences in parenting styles of the twelve families she sampled in her study. The differences in these styles corresponded to class distinctions. In her findings, she discovered that middle class families practice ‘concerted cultivation’ whiles the working-class and poor families both practiced ‘accomplishment of natural growth’ (Lareau 3).
In the accomplishment of natural growth child rearing style, she indicated that children have exposure to longer leisure time, distinct boundaries between them and their parents, child-initiated play and continuous interaction with several members of the extended families (Lareau 3). According to Lareau’s assertion, children from the poor and working-class families are allowed control over their leisure time and autonomy from their parents and adults. Therefore, she suggests that these children often live childlike lives compared to the children from the middle class families, which seem to receive much attention and guidance from their parents concerning their leisure time (Lareau 4).
Additionally, in her view, children from the middle-class families have important institutional advantages compared to their counterparts since they gain enough experience to allow them acquire sufficient and valuable skills in their later developments, especially when they join the working world. For instance, she found out that in the middle-class families, there were more talking compared to the poor and working-class families. Therefore the former had large vocabularies and comfort when conversing with or addressing authority figures (Lareau 4). She also found that in the poor and working-class families, members usually lack the confidence to look each other in the eye while conversing, however, the children from middle class families learn to shake hands of adults they meet and look them in the eye (Lareau 5).
With reference to the aforementioned examples, the author intends to explain what she refers to as the ‘transmission of differential advantage to children’ (Lareau 5). In her opinion, there exists a ‘dominant set of cultural repertories’ in the United States on child rearing styles (Lareau 4). She also believes that the engagement in concerted cultivation by the middle class parents is credited to the fact that parents from these families comply with the current professional standards of raising their children. Given the economic challenges and demands of child rearing, families from the poor and working class families often engage in providing the necessities of life. These philosophies often result to differences in transmission advantages to the children when they grow up.
Through her study, she discovered that black and white middle class children exhibited a sense of entitlement (Lareau 6). These children also acted as though they had a right to pursue their individual preferences and actively manage interactions in institutional settings (Lareau 6). For instance, one of the mothers in the families coached her son on how to get the doctors attentions when he had a concern by encouraging him to speak up. She also asserts that, since children from middle class families have experiences from their homes where negotiations and reasoning is stressed, they learn to make rules work in their favor. However, poor and working class children exhibit a sense of constraint in their interactions in these institutional settings. She further suggested that these children copied the actions of their parents by accepting the actions of the people in authority.
In my opinion, the most effective parenting style is the one adopted by the middle class families; the concerted cultivation. This is because in this parenting style, parents appreciate the role of the children in the society by ensuring that they equip these children with life skills, which they can use in the absence of their parents. The other style by the poor and working class families has limitations to this effect since their parents who struggle to provide necessities neglect children. I also believe that these children from the middle class families have advantages over their counterparts since they have the experiences from their families. Their parents control their leisure to make them understand the fact that they should be responsible and balance their time well. Poor families and the working class have problems of facing each other in the eye, in my opinion, children from these families would also not look people in their eyes, thereby feel inferior especially to persons in authority.
The children form middle class families are better prepared to success compared to their counterparts. Even though these children from the latter families are often neglected and face the realities of life earlier than the middle class children face, they lack the skills to face life situations since their parents did not prepare them while they were still young. Therefore, the children from middle class families get the life skills from their parents, which they would later apply in their lives and transfer to their children. This could be the reason behind the fact that poor families always stay poor in many generations while the middle class families flourish.
Work Cited:
Annette Lareau. Unequal childhoods: class, race, and family life Sociology - ethnic studies – anthropology. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2003. Print.
