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Parental influence on child development
Parental influence on child development
Parents influence on children's development
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Teenagers often wish their parents would leave them alone. However, in Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, Esch Batiste wishes just the opposite. With her mother dead and her father distant, she lacks a guiding force in life. Parents should be the first and longest lasting teachers in a child’s life, passing on lessons and offering support for their growth. Not having parental figures is tragically detrimental to a child’s maturation, leaving them alone to figure out the world, which often comes with the cost of making misinformed decisions. As Esch is thrust into adult life, she strains to remember the teachings of her mother and is often left lonely and without instructions on how to stay alive and love herself as a woman. Esch relies on her …show more content…
For Esch Batiste, this means that her parents can tell her about who and what she comes from. Knowing the history of one 's family and the power of one 's genes can provide strength. In a memory of Mama, Esch recalls how she danced, commenting that “She was beautiful”(93). Another time, Esch remembers how Mama caught a baby shark and “walked it tired. . . . coaxed it to death”(85). Both of these memories are very revealing about Mama’s character. She was a strong woman, capable of catching sharks while also being extremely beautiful. If Mama was all of this, and she gave life to Esch, then Esch should also possess all of these qualities. They are in her DNA, in her bones, her brain, and her hands. Everything that made Mama great makes Esch great as well. The only problem is that Esch does not know she has inherited power. The few years she remembers Mama are not enough to convince her. The truth, however, is that Esch can control the sharks in her life, Manny, just as Mama could, and Esch is as beautiful as Mama was. Daddy is too busy and absent-minded to reveal this to Esch, so she goes on the journey of discovery by herself. A journey that she accomplishes, but not with the ease she should have been able
Born in 1959, author Debra Oswald began writing as a teenager. She rose to prominence with the debut of Gary’s House where it was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award. Many of her works features abandoned and neglected children that grow into adults to fight their own demons in the past. Oswald writes about the importance of a family’s psychology, both real and surrogate. In Gary’s House, Gary had a bad relationship with his father that lead to neglection and eventually hate but when Gary himself becomes a father he disregards his past to provide for his future child. This is the author’s intention of representing how important family is.
Every day the safety and well-being of many children are threatened by neglect. Each child deserves the comfort of having parents whom provide for their children. Throughout the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls explains the childhood from being born into the hands of parent who neglect their children. Many may argue that children need to grow with their parents; however, the removal of children is necessary if the parents disregard the kid’s needs and cannot provide a stable life for their children.
In John Connolly’s novel, The Book of Lost Things, he writes, “for in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be”. Does one’s childhood truly have an effect on the person one someday becomes? In Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle and Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, this question is tackled through the recounting of Jeannette and Amir’s childhoods from the perspectives of their older, more developed selves. In the novels, an emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the relationships Jeannette and Amir have with their fathers while growing up, and the effects that these relations have on the people they each become. The environment to which they are both exposed as children is also described, and proves to have an influence on the characteristics of Jeannette and Amir’s adult personalities. Finally, through the journeys of other people in Jeannette and Amir’s lives, it is demonstrated that the sustainment of traumatic experiences as a child also has a large influence on the development of one’s character while become an adult. Therefore, through the analysis of the effects of these factors on various characters’ development, it is proven that the experiences and realities that one endures as a child ultimately shape one’s identity in the future.
Intergenerational conflicts are an undeniable facet of life. With every generation of society comes new experiences, new ideas, and many times new morals. It is the parent’s job go work around these differences to reach their children and ensure they receive the necessary lessons for life. Flannery O’Connor makes generous use of this idea in several of her works. Within each of the three short stories, we see a very strained relationship between a mother figure and their child. We quickly find that O’Conner sets up the first to be receive the brunt of our attention and to some extent loathing, but as we grow nearer to the work’s characteristic sudden and violent ending, we grow to see the finer details and what really makes these relations
The novel, "Joy Luck Club," by Amy Tan describes the struggle between a dominate mother who tries to protect her daughter, Ni kan, from the devastating losses that she suffered by convincing her that she might become anyone she wants to be. Ni kan resents her mother's control and wishes only to be herself. The author clearly illustrates in this novel that parents cannot control their children's lives; they can only guide them in the right direction and let them make their own decisions.
As often claimed that love runs out, this book shows a different story. Love is challenged, but will not run out. In Salvage the Bones, Esch is challenged with the hard decision of keeping her baby or not due to many reasons. Some of these reasons would include, her mother passing away, her age, and lastly, her love for Manny.
Parent/Child relationships are very hard to establish among individuals. This particular relationship is very important for the child from birth because it helps the child to be able to understand moral and values of life that should be taught by the parent(s). In the short story “Teenage Wasteland”, Daisy (mother) fails to provide the proper love and care that should be given to her children. Daisy is an unfit parent that allows herself to manipulated by lacking self confidence, communication, and patience.
Creating “worlds of their own, with particular kinds of boundaries separating them from the larger world”, families ideally provide encouragement and protection for each of their members (Handel, xxiv). In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, however, the Dursleys and Aunt Marge fail to fulfill their roles as Harry’s primary caregivers. In Russell Hoban’s The Mouse and His Child, the father mouse is unable to give his child all that he needs and longs for. In these two children’s stories, the expectation that families will provide physical support, emotional support, and encouragement for their children is not met.
In the story “Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the main character, Connie, experiences life not having an actively participating mother or father. Most adolescents struggle with the transition from teen-age years to adulthood. For many, this is where the parents step in. Parents are meant to support and help an adolescent when needed, especially during this difficult transition; however, this is not always true. In Connie’s case, her parents allowed her to make the change alone and endure hard times. As a result, she lacked the values needed to survive. Such values are used to equip a young person for the real world and the tragedies that come with it. As seen in “Where are you going, Where have you been?”, Connie was a victim of poor guidance and empty judgment. The dysfunctional family’s behavior was reflected in Connie. Her mother envied her, and her father was not an active figure in her life. Connie 's
Because of the strong examples each mother and father must set forth for their children, the parental figures in these roles must provide specific nurturing traits in order to ensure they grow into well-rounded adults. Without these traits, many children and adults much like those in Shelley’s Frankenstein and Kafka’s Metamorphosis find it hard to cope in everyday life. The lack of parental guidance for Frankenstein’s monster and Gregor in The Metamorphosis is the reason why both are unable to function in society. The way they are treated throughout their lives by their “parents” as well as the neglect and abandonment they suffer throughout their respective stories explain why a parent’s role is much needed and irreplaceable. Although the works are separated by some one hundred years, the importance of parenting is timeless.
Parental pressure is often part of a child’s life. The pressure depends on gender, society, and also culture. The really short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kinvaid is a conversation between a mother and daughter. The mother talk most of the time; she gave a long series of warnings and advice to the daughter, who responds only twice. These advises are mostly about how to take care of her dad, or future husband, and also household chores, cooking, manners, social conduct. The voice of the mother seemed commanding and “bitchy” but the mother seems to expect a great deal of her daughter, and she did say what she had to say to let the girl know it.
At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl.
Adolescence is the point in a person’s life that plays a vital role in the formation of the man or woman they are to become. Not every journey or experience is the same, but every girl and boy has to go through it to officially be ushered into the adult world. For a young lady, the most important thing in her journey to womanhood is her mother. The mother plays the role in guiding her daughter through her adolescent experiences in a healthy way. She is able to use her experiences to teach her daughter but also allow her daughter to learn from her own mistakes and make her experience her own. In the novel Carrie written by Stephen King and the television series Gilmore Girls created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, there are two examples of mother/daughter relationships and the effects the mothers had on their daughter’s transitions through adolescence into adulthood. The two relationships differ because of maternal and community support, maternal guidance and teachings to the daughter on how to be a woman, parenting styles, and honesty about the mistakes the mother’s made. The relationships are similar because both girls are in high school,
There are many approaches to parenting and everyone has their own preferences as to what they think is best. In a fast paced rush around society, it is hard to know what the best choices are for your children. There is a struggle to balance what needs to be done with what can be done, and this has negative and positive feedback on the children. Parents play a critical role in shaping and guiding their children into functional confident adults. An effective parent will learn as they teach in order to grow into understanding with their children.
Children are the future of the world and need to be nurtured and educated in the best conditions. Thus, parenting is one of the most challenging and admirable responsibilities that people can experience. Parenting plays important roles in the development of children’s characteristics. Some people nurture children depending on their own ways. Others get advice from friends or books. Parenting can be divided into three groups: authoritative, permissive, and democratic parenting.