Movie "Parenthood"

“Jesus Julie, how the hell could you do that in my own home?”

Just one statement made in parenting and something that both grownups and children have actually discovered to neglect. Yet this is only one parenting type and there are other ways of dealing any one issue. There are three primary methods of parenting which consist of liberal, authoritarian, and reliable. All of these contain their own advantages and failures. A child’s mind is a delicate thing, and knowing that, we ought to consider our parenting techniques carefully given that it will most likely be the most prominent thing as far as our kids’s childhoods.

In “Being a parent” we see various results of kid development due to different parenting approaches. Seeing this from a 3rd individual view we state to ourselves, “if that was my kid I would set him or her damn straight.” Those parents appear to have selected a parenting style that is doing not have for their scenario and that it might necessarily be their faults that the children have matured to be the way they are due to the fact that the moms and dads were raised that method.

Since Gil’s father only took him out on his birthday, and even then would take him to a baseball video game and pay an usher to sit with him, Gil developed a strong detachment to his dad. This sprung hatred and animosity, which in turn persuaded Gil to grow up to be an additional loving and compassionate moms and dad. This brings us to the first parenting technique.

Authoritative child rearing is based upon the idea of positive reinforcement and using punishments as little as possible. This is said to be the healthiest of the parenting methods in that children learn to develop good habits on their own and are still rewarded for their good actions. Parents allow their children to make all their own decisions and do don’t necessarily scold the children if they have done wrong, only letting them know lightly that they didn’t care for their actions. This method of parenting seems to promote positive communications between what a parent and child are feeling and seems to keep the line of communications open. Of course, used in excess, as Gil portrayed in the movie, can very well be an unhealthy thing. As Steve Martin said, if his son, Kevin, had not caught that ball, his whole attitude towards positively would have gone down the tubes.

The second of the three parenting methods is the all powerful Authoritarian method of parenting in which basically the children are domineered into doing what the parents want. This is seemingly the harshest on the children due to the severe dictation that is required. This is probably the most used method of parenting throughout the world (except in the U.S.) because it comes so natural to yell at whoever you are talking to in order to get them to listen to what you have to say. This is the idea of holding absolute order without letting the kids make any of their own choices. Parents will control children by repressing anything they do that they feel is negative. Another method of control associated with this method is the management of rewards and punishments, according to the way the children act.

Another form of child rearing is the permissive method. In this method the parents allow children to make all their own decisions and deal with the results by themselves too. Helen used this form of parenting with Julie and Gary. This parenting method isn’t necessarily wrong assuming there is always a parent there to gently guide the children throughout all their decisions. The place where this parenting method goes wrong is that normally this is the default parenting method in homes that have both single parents working, so the child is left home alone and does what he wants. Disinformation is another thing that is associated with this parenting method in that if you don’t tell a child about his options he will be forced to make the one that you have chosen for them.

No matter what method of parenting is chosen people need to remember that children always need someone to watch over them, to show them right from wrong and to help them in the hardships they go through. To reign a country with love or fear or to let it run free is a decision people have been making for the past ten thousand years and one method doesn’t seem to be working any better then others at times, but if anything has been shown it is that the real answer is somewhere in-between.