SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Social practices and cultural beliefs of modern life are preventing healthy brain and emotional development in children, according to an interdisciplinary body of research presented recently at a symposium at the University of Notre Dame.
...
"Breast-feeding infants, responsiveness to crying, almost constant touch and having multiple adult caregivers are some of the nurturing ancestral parenting practices that are shown to positively impact the developing brain, which not only shapes personality, but also helps physical health and moral development," says Narvaez.Studies show that responding to a baby's needs (not letting a baby "cry it out") has been shown to influence the development of conscience; positive touch affects stress reactivity, impulse control and empathy; free play in nature influences social capacities and aggression; and a set of supportive caregivers (beyond the mother alone) predicts IQ and ego resilience as well as empathy.
The United States has been on a downward trajectory on all of these care characteristics, according to Narvaez. Instead of being held, infants spend much more time in carriers, car seats and strollers than they did in the past. Only about 15 percent of mothers are breast-feeding at all by 12 months, extended families are broken up and free play allowed by parents has decreased dramatically since 1970.
On the other side, there's hand-wringing about helicopter parenting.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bradley13 on Friday August 21 2015, @12:39PM
Why "on the other side"? There is no difference between this and helicopter parenting. It's all about selfishness on the part of the parents.
- Too much day care, too much time in carriers and cribs: that's so that they don't interfere unduly with the parent's "wanna have it all" lives.
- Free play means letting your kids take risks, and restraining yourself from interfering with your adult-level skills, so that your child can develop their own skills.
- Wanting to be friends with your children, instead of parenting them. If you encourage independence and imposing discipline, your child doesn't always like you. Just trying to be a pal is easy (except for the fact that you wind up with a spoiled brat).
- Going to bat for your kid at every opportunity ("my kid deserves an 'A' for effort!") is easier than teaching your kid to take responsibility for their own decisions and actions.
It's all part and parcel of the "me" generation, raising kids who have a lot of trouble dealing with the real world. Of course, elders have been grousing about the younger generation for as long as there have been people. Get off my lawn.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 21 2015, @12:53PM
You're statements may be true, but it's like Freudian psychology and Intelligent Design... utterly unprovable as anything is reverse-justifyable. Let me give an example.
-Mother goes to teacher saying that Son's test was unfairly graded: entitled "my kid deserves an 'A' for effort!" helicopter parent
-Mother doesn't go to teacher about Son's test: lazy self-centered selfish parent
-Father provides a controlled supervised play environment: paranoid parent who is wrapping child in bubblewrap
-Father is hands-off and has children go off and do their own thing: neglectful and potentially reckless parent
Talking in the abstract, I could find the reverse negative of everything you had proposed as a good thing. So unless you have concrete examples (which you might have), how about not making wide-sweaping generalizations? Everything has at least two sides and can be spun negatively (much like politics).
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Francis on Friday August 21 2015, @08:14PM
You got the wrong lesson out of that. The right lesson is don't have children. You'll be a rotten parent no matter what you do anyways.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by meustrus on Friday August 21 2015, @01:12PM
It's not all selfishness. Is it a "wanna have it all" life to want a career to return to when the kids are in school? Because people who take years off to raise their young children often can't get jobs anymore because of the hole in their resumes.
And free play? Well if you let your kids wander off into nature without supervision (like children have done forever and ever until now) you could be charged with criminal neglect. Somebody last year famously was for leaving her kid to play in a public park while there was a charity worker playing with several children there.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Friday August 21 2015, @01:48PM
And free play? Well if you let your kids wander off into nature without supervision (like children have done forever and ever until now) you could be charged with criminal neglect.
Which is why we have to fight against that instead of mindlessly obeying those unjust policies.
(Score: 2) by skullz on Friday August 21 2015, @03:41PM
"Think of the children!!1one"
*clutches pearls*
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Friday August 21 2015, @07:21PM
It's not all selfishness. Is it a "wanna have it all" life to want a career to return to when the kids are in school? Because people who take years off to raise their young children often can't get jobs anymore because of the hole in their resumes.
Not only that, but most families need both parents working just to pay the bills.
(Score: 2) by Justin Case on Sunday August 23 2015, @01:30PM
> most families need both parents working just to pay the bills.
You can thank ~40% tax rates for that. The whole liberal push to get moms out of the kitchen and into the "equal" workforce was so they could dial up the tax take.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday August 23 2015, @06:27PM
You can thank ~40% tax rates for that. The whole liberal push to get moms out of the kitchen and into the "equal" workforce was so they could dial up the tax take.
You'll have to come up with a better conservative fantasy/conspiracy than that. The tax rate was much higher in days when it was rare for both parents to be working.
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Friday August 21 2015, @02:24PM
I'm tired of hearing about the "me" generation.
I've only known a few families that actually fit the description. Maybe I'm just surounded by unusually good parents but from what I can see this kind of stuff is nowhere near common enough to label a generation. When it does happen it's a train wreck but surely every generation has had some bad parents!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 21 2015, @02:29PM
Kids these days are worse than ever. Ignore all the countless people throughout history who said the same thing; we're right this time.
(Score: 0) by oldmac31310 on Friday August 21 2015, @04:59PM
There is nothing wrong with being friends with your children. Would you rather they be your enemy? My ex is my children's enemy much of the time because she values disciple and structure over dialogue, acceptance, tolerance and understanding. My kids are my kids, but also my friends because I'm pretty much the opposite of my psycho control freak ex. When and if my kids get out of line I'll lay down the law, but so far it has never been necessary...
(Score: 2) by mechanicjay on Friday August 21 2015, @05:44PM
No, you're just completely and utterly wrong.
We raising two boys and do all the things mentioned in TFA, which is absolutely not "Helicopter Parenting".
I let my children fail at a task before offering guidance, and try never to just do something for them, rather I try to help guide them to success on their own. Soon they stop asking my help for a particular task and do it themselves.
This parenting methodology is the Antithesis to Helicopter parenting, it's about helping the kid grow into an independent and self-confident person. I'm giving my kids a safe and supportive environment to learn how to make mistakes and learn how to deal with feelings and emotions rather than protecting and shielding them from the real-world. This isn't about being friends with your kids, it's more like being a life mentor.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.