Class, Educational Levels & Parenting

1. 82

   gmwilliamsposted 4 years ago

   
   Many factors are involved in parenting children.  Two of these factors are socioeconomic class & educational levels of the parents.  Parents who are solidly middle, upper middle, upper class & highly educated are more democratic parents.  They believe in discussing things w/their children in order for the latter to use reasoning as to why the instruction is constructive.  These children are also allowed to question their parents.  These parents present varied avenues to their children.  They don't believe in using harsh nor corporal discipline. They believe that children should freely express their opinions & be independent, analytical thinkers.
   
   Conversely, parents who are lower, working, & lower middle class as well as less educated believe in teaching their children blind obedience.  They are of the school that children should be submissive to their parents & other adult figures.  They view children expressing their opinions as disobedient & disrespectful.  These parents tend to be authoritarian parents who believe that it is my way or the highway. They are intolerant of dissenting opinions, particularly in children who "should know their place."  These are the types of parents who don't believe in discussing anything w/their children. They ORDER their children & aren't loathe to use harsh, even corporal punishments to keep their children "in line."   Do you agree with this premise?

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2. 80

   k@riposted 4 years ago

   I tend to feel that parenting is learned behavior.   But, this doesn't mean that we parent like  our parents did.   My parents were upper middle class and both my mother and my father were college graduates.   My parents were very authoritarian. I feel this made me into a more permissive parent. I was much more likely to discuss with my children then my parents ever had been with me. My daughter, however,  is much more authoritarian then I was. But, that is just the way my family works.

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   1. 80

      k@riposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I tend to feel that parenting is a learned behavior.   But, this doesn't mean that we parent like  our parents did.   My parents were upper middle class and both my mother and my father were college graduates.   My parents were very authoritarian. I feel this made me into a more permissive parent. I was much more likely to discuss with my children than my parents ever had been with me. My daughter, however,  is much more authoritarian then I was. But, that is just the way my family works.

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      1. 82

         gmwilliamsposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Your parents were the exception.  Typically upper middle class & college educated parents tend to be very democratic parents.   It is usually lower middle class & less educated parents who lean towards authoritarianism. Highly educated parents are open-minded as a result of education.  Less educated parents by virtue of their educational level are limited in perspective.

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3. 55

   The0NatureBoyposted 4 years ago

   I have to disagree while agreeing.
   
   My observations and experiences reveals many of what you are calling "educated" will not tolerate questioning their authority. That is especially true of African-American parents of the southern slave states of the U.S.  Because they were punished, like my mother who was a schooler herself, often attempted to reason with her children but when she discovered she didn't have an acceptable answer she resorted to "because I said so and that's enough" which meant if we kept asking punishment was forthcoming.
   
   Then there are those who were not schooled but punished with no instructions except their one reasoning who felt being punished without being given an answer was an error, they chose to always listen to their children's reasoning and allowed then to "finds out the hard way" via trial and error although they gave them the best advice they could.
   
   As for me, I had a widowed girl I often worked for who gave my advice too offset my mother's punishment. My mother worked with her during election times and, it seems to me, she saw something in me that she wanted to encourage and reveal "learning via trial and error is education and not being schooled to follow that the teachers reveal is correct.
   
   For that cause, I'm "straddle of the fence" with my answer.

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