Parenting

For the last weeks section on parenting we reviewed and discussed Popkin's approach to parenting and some of the techniques he says are affective in raising children.

He highlighted 4 different traits that a parent should pass on to their children in order to be a successful parent.  I found the list to be very beneficial.

1. Courage (the root word being coeur, which is heart in french)
2. Cooperation (also known as co-work)
3. Responsibility (the ability to respond to challenges and opportunities)
4. Respect

 The 3 main parenting styles that Popkin outlined are the following:

1. Authoritarian Parent - Autocratic or superstrict
2. Permissive Parent - Laissez-faire or doormat style
3. Active Parent - Involved and seeks to instill in the child the 4 traits mentioned above

Salvador Minuchin describes the dynamic relationship that exists within the parent-child relationship.  This explanation given be Minuchin can be understood through the eyes of systemic theory.  In Families and Family Therapy Minuchin (1974) he explains:

"It is essential to understand the complexity of child rearing in order to judge its participants fairly.  Parents cannot protect and guide without at the same time controlling and restricting.  Children cannot grow and become individuated without rejecting and attacking.  The process of socialization is inherently conflictual.  Any therapeutic input that challenges a dysfunctional process between parents and children must at the same time support its participants" (p. 58).