Parenting Responsibilities

Parenting: A Learning Process

Parenting: caring for children and helping them grow and develop

Parents Should◦ Have reasonable expectations◦ Develop parenting skills

The Stages of Parenthood◦ Image making (pregnancy)◦ Nurturing (Becoming attached Birth-2)◦ Authority (Determine rules 2-5)◦ Interpretive (Deciding on values 5-13)◦ Interdependent (Adolescence; establish

boundaries)◦ Departure (Child leaves home, empty feeling)

The Changes that Parenthood Brings

New responsibilities and role conflictChanges in lifestyle (sometimes

suddenly)Emotional adjustments (stop being

selfish)Changes in relationshipsEmploymentIrreversibility

Making Decisions About Parenthood

Emotional MaturityDesire for parenthood

◦A child cannot create miracles; saving of marriage, low self-esteem, attention issues, etc.

Health ConsiderationsFinancial Concerns (can you afford

a child)

Simple Truths“To Love a Child is Spelled T-I-M-E

”

MOTHERHOOD

Intensive Mothering Ideology

What mothers ought to provide:

Full-time attentionSelf-sacrificing

devotionExpert guidedLabor-intensive

involvement with the child

Child’s needs are more pressing than those of mothers

WHAT MOTHER COULD LIVE UP TO THIS EVEN IF SHE STAYED AT HOME.

WHAT IF SHE WORKED?

FATHERHOOD

Anxiety about abilities, baby, money.

Witnessing birth is a positive bonding experience with child.

“Nurturing father” is able to participate in all parenting practices – child benefits.

Fatherhood is changing fast.

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A FATHER

Some Facts:½ of all children will

spend part of their childhood in a father absent home.

32% of all children are born to unmarried women. Among African American it is 68%.

Children raised in two-parent families rarely experience poverty.

Data has linked growing up without a father to: ◦ Under achievement in school◦ Mental illness◦ Drug abuse◦ Youth suicide◦ Delinquency◦ Crime