Modern western society has a plethora of books and podcasts on how to parent at all stages of a child’s life. Before print and electronic media the cultural norm was for the elders, grandparents, and experienced parents (usually mothers) gathering around the first-time parents passing on learned, traditional and cultural parenting advice. While parenting seems to be instinctive for other species in the animal kingdom, it certainly doesn’t seem to be the case for humans. In all of this advice there must be a purpose to our parenting, but what is it?
Depending on who you ask there will be a variety of answers to this question. If you asked a kid most will say they know best! They may know what they like — to stay up all night watching TV eating all manner of foods, but do they know best? Children don’t have the foresight or maturity to make wise decisions for themselves. We can teach them how to make wise decisions but they won’t make them naturally. We want to gradually help them make more decisions for themselves as they get older (because they’re going to be adults one day anyway), but left to their own devices they’re not able to decide what is best for them.
It seems logical to think of our children as, well, ours. We conceived them, we gave birth to them, we’ve nurtured and raised them. They’re ours, she or he is mine.
