Parenting

This week we talked about parenting, things like parenting styles and why people have children and types of disciplines. I've learned about the different parenting styles before and I usually think about how I want to implement an authoritative style of parenting, but I never thought about what parenting styles were used in my house. My parents were pretty authoritative in parenting me, but I think that both sets of my grandparents were also authoritative. My parents were really good at giving me choices but we also had consequences if we broke rules.

We also talked about why people have children. Some of the reasons mentioned in class were to continue the family name, religious and social expectations, progress as a couple, create what they didn't have, and to recreate what they did have. I want to have children one day. One of my dreams in life is to be a mother and to raise a family. One of the reasons goes along with one of the reasons I want to get married and that is I don't feel that I can progress without someone to progress with and I feel the challenges of having my own family will help me in my quest to become more like the savior. I also love children and I feel that one of the best ways I can have a positive impact on the world is by raising a righteous family a challenge I know won't be easy but I also feel that parenting is important enough that if my husband and I make the Lord an important part of our family that He will help us with the challenges.

I thought the conversation about spanking was really interesting. I don't want to spank my children. I remember being spanked when I was young, it didn't happen very often, but when I was spanked I remember feeling...I think indignant is the right word. I didn't feel sorry or penitent, I felt mad at my parent for spanking me and I don't think that it was effective for me. I've also learned about other forms of discipline that work so much better. Another reason I am against spanking is that I have worked with children that have been abused and I feel there is a fine line between spanking and abuse and I want to stay as far from that as I can. I'm in preschool this semester and one thing I have liked in the preschool is that we try to give reasons for the rules and tell them the consequences is they don't follow them. The first couple weeks were rough as they were learning, but we've been consistent and the kids behave a lot better. I think that is something else that I've found to be so important with discipline and that is to be consistent, it helps the children know what to expect and what their boundaries are.

I'm sure it's moments like this that make parenting worth all the work.