Parenthood

What are some of the greatest challenges that face parents when raising children in today's world? What are some specific challenges or issues dealing with child rearing that are unique to your culture or part of the world (e.g., education, freedom, religion, dress, discipline, etc.)?

Child development is considered as the most crucial stage in the life of a human being.  As children grow and develop from a baby to a teenager and up to a more matured person they undergo a process of developmental stages that are vital in molding a matured person, that is, spiritually, emotionally, physically, socially and intellectually capable.  In the process of development, parents play an important role as the greatest influencers in life. Therefore, parenting skills are a must in order to have a sound child development. Along with the skills that parents must possess, there are also several factors that might affect child rearing such as the culture you are in, the education you have, your religious affiliation, the society that you belong to, the type of discipline you have, your economic status and the like. The questions are: what are the greatest challenges that parents are facing nowadays in raising children?   What are the issues that parents are dealing with at this modern time? How can parents address all these?

Good parenting happens when a person creates a stable, nurturing the home environment for a child, is a positive role model, and plays a positive and active part in a child's life. Good parents provide moral and spiritual guidance, set limits, and provide consequences for a child's behaviour (https://www.wps.k12.va.us/sysinfo/policies/AB.htm ). Basically, parenting skills are passed from one generation to the other specifically for those parents coming from a society that gives importance to culture. However, parenting is also evolving with the changing world nowadays. The complexity of life in the modern era greatly affects how parenting skills are challenged.

Culture is one of the greatest challenges that parents are battling in these modern times.  Ideally, parents want to raise their children based on their culture. Culture consists of beliefs, behaviours, norms and other characteristics that are shared among members of a particular group or community.  Parent ideologies on raising children are strictly based on what they have experienced from their ancestors. Fundamentally, parents want their belief to remain in future generations, hence, they want to teach their children what they learned and lived for. Nevertheless, with the modernization, the world is changing and boundaries between societies and cultures are diminishing. Children nowadays have great access to compare each culture and have the opportunity to choose what they want to believe in regardless of parent will. The battle is now between parents and the modernization.

Second, freedom is the second challenge that parents are facing. Over the years, it is the main responsibility of each child to follow their parents’ rules and regulation.  Children seem to be mere followers of what their parents want them to be. For instance, if you belong to a family of doctors, usually, parents want their child to be a doctor also because they want it to remain as their family legacy. Other families, for example, into politics, that is why there is a co-called political dynasty, or the side of royal families, parents want their children to retain their family status in the society. However, this is not the case at all times. There are reported cases, for example, that a princess gave up her royal title or status just to marry a commoner. The freedom to choose of children nowadays is just the same as the freedom of their parents to raise them. The state and other international organizations have enacted new laws and treaties pertaining to human rights of children for special protection, care afforded to minors and the rights against abuses and maltreatment. Parent controls over their children are loosened as compared to before. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom on how to dress, freedom on whom you are friends with and the like,  are just examples of what children in these modern times enjoy of which parents have no control.

Lastly, the adverse effect of technology is one of the specific challenges in dealing with child rearing in today’s world. Although technological advancement has the greatest positive impact on human lives, there are undeniable effects on our human existence particularly in shaping our children’s future.  There are certain cases that instead of being an instrument for good, technology caused children to get off track to the right path.  For instance, access to different platforms of social media or any other form of activities over the internet may defer their childhood development. Overexposure of activities involving technology may lead to addiction that may lead to an unhealthy life. This may not involve the use of intoxicating drugs but may lead to other forms of addiction such as online gambling, sexual activities that may result early marriage or abortion under the worst case scenario due to unwanted pregnancy, to name a few.

Parents are the children’s first teacher and will remain throughout life. It is stated in the Holy Bible that “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it”. It is the main responsibility of parents to raise their child the best possible way they can. Their function is to coach and encourage their children to handle challenges in life, allow their children to explore on their own and learn from experiences with proper guidance. Parents are the main influencers in the life of a child. They must hone them to be better individuals, not spoiled brats. Parenting is a challenging but definitely a rewarding job.