Childhood

Children's Share in Household Tasks

Goldscheider and Waite discuss the role that children play in the performance of Household tasks. Children used to do more chors and work around the house, but due to the changes in philosphy on how to raise your child, they do not do work as much. The prevailing idea of more recent decades is that the parents should take on the responsibilities of housework in order to allow the children to perform other tasks, such as schoolwork or free play, in order to ensure their success in life. Roles in the household continue to be segregated by gender. It has been noted by the authors that girls spend about twice as much as on housework as boys, this falls in line with the future expectations of mothers being the main household workers. Children may do about as much housework as the fathers. Children are doing little to no housework currently. They are not developing the skills that they may have to perform later on when they start their own families. They have gone from useful to useless.
The authors make a good point. Kids are not doing as much as they use to. I blame technology for a lot of it. A lot of distractions distract from things they can do around the house. Parents like to put them in organized after school activities and ther things that they are supposed to benefit from. Nature is balance so if their time is filled up with other activities, then something else, housework participation will suffer. I do feel that this is turning children into useless parasites that don't know how to behave like adults when they grow up. So, I agree with the authors.

Children's Perspectives of Employed Mothers and Fathers

Galinsky has taken it upon herself to to study the opinions of children and parents on the state of their relationship. She notes and worries about the gap between what people debate about concerning family and work and what scientific studies show. Through the Ask the Children Study, she asked children from diverse backgrounds how THEY feel about their relationships with their parents. In debate one, she asks: Is having an employed mother good or bad for children? The majority agrees that a working mother can have as good a relationship w/ her kids than a nonworking. Most of the dissenters are employed fathers w/ unemployed wives. The children mostly agree, but would prefer to have more time with their mothers. Debate 2 asks: Is the importance on mothering or fathering? This study wonders how much of an impact working fathers have on the kids. The children for the most part wish that they could se their fathers more and that they were less stressed. Debate 3 asks: Is Child Care good or bad for children? Opinion on this is mixed. Good child care is good for children. Studies show that it does not effect the bond between child and parent. Debate 4: Is it quality time or quantity time? Children are spending more time with their fathers than before. They also wish that they weren't so stressed out and tired from their work.
It is hard to argue against any actual scientific study. So I won't. The debates will continue about how children are being raised until everyone is educated enough in the subject. In the future when everyone is grown out of tubes and the notion of parents become obsolete, the debates will cease to exist. However I am afraid of this future and believe through studies like this one we can preserve the mother-father-children family form that is dominant today. This is the best way to raise a child.

How to Succeed in Childhood

Child-rearing has changed much over the last century. Parents are less punitive and much more complimentary. This papers asks if this shift in approach has actually benefited the children. The author argues that a lot of what children learns comes not from imitating the parents, but from what they learn on the streets with their social groups. Parents influence how they behave at home and not how they behave in the real world. Children are compartmentalized. The group mindset is powerful in teaching the child.
I agree with the author. Children's social behavior is greatly effected not by parents as much as with peers. They are living in two different worlds with two different laws of social physics. When kids grow up, they immerse themselves in the social world outside of their parents and abide by the physics that have been imprinted in them after years of socialization.

From Useful to Useless and Back to Useless

Child labor laws are now in effect to prevent the injustices towards children in the work place. But wait? What are children now good for is they can't make any money? Children became sacred to the parents and eventually were not needed for work but raised to become successes. However, some kids can still support the 'rents, so to speak.

Look, I'm all for kids making money and helping out around the house, but not at the price of their innocence. Things are pretty good them in America right now, and I don't think it should be changed.