Infant Care

In today’s society the way we care for infants is very different than in the past. There is more technology that you have to do or buy to be a good parent. There are baby monitors that are very high tech, and many expensive accessories that you can buy your child. There are many views on how to raise a child. The historical manual I found, “The Canadian Mother and Child Manual” published in 1940 by Einest Coutre was about bathing babies. The link to the manual is:http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/health-promotion/big/big_23_canadian-mother-inside.aspx Coutre was very strict about how to bath babies, where today we use more of our common sense about how to bath babies. There are many manuals and “how to guides” to care for infants but what one is right? The “right practises” change over time in our society. In my sociology 332 class we are learning about Durkheim’s theories and he states that “social facts or norms” change over time. What is view right in one point in time is now viewed wrong now. Like for instance wet nursing. Wet nursing was viewed normal back in the 18^th-19^th, but now it is viewed weird.        

Is Having Children a Personal Choice?

In our textbook “A History of Childhood” Heywood states that people may have children to feel closer to their partner, assure the family succession, provide pleasurable company, and children would take care of their parents when they are older. In my Sociology 332 class we discussed if having children is a personal choice in Canada or not. The class thought it was, because in Canada we have more freedom. People can decide how many children they want they can have 1 or 18 kids it is up to them, as the government will not say anything. Women do not even need a man to have children anymore, as they can have in vitro, surrogate mothers or adopt, but my sociology teacher disagreed saying that it is not our personal choice to have children. In North America the average person will have only 1 or 2 children, most likely because of financial reasons and that is the norm in our society, just like having more kids in the preindustrial society to work and make money was the norm then. Children are not an economic assess anymore they are now an economic burden. Are we tricked into thinking that we have a choice on how many kids we want? Many people may first want 6 kids then once then start having children that number decreases, because it is a lot of work and money to raise children in our society. I am also in Sociology 371, which is Sociology of the Family and in that class we talked about how the role of the family is always changing. The role of children was to work and be an economical assess, but know it is to go to school and learn and parents have to raise them for adulthood.

Maternal Health

The other day in class we watched a film about maternal health called “Saving Haiti Mother’s”. It was about how giving birth in Haiti is dangerous and the morality rate for mothers is very high, even though it is not a concern in developed countries. I did not know this before, as it is not talked about very much. I know about the problem of Aids or orphan children in places like Haiti, but I did not know about the problem of maternal health before I watched with video. Having a global maternal health day, a fundraising competition, or an educational benefit are all things we can do to help these people and get people aware of the problem. It is a major concern as if mothers die than the older girls in the family have to take over the mothering role. Unfortunately people are not aware of this. The link: http://www.one.org/c/international/issue/951/?gclid=CJ6zpJq79asCFSOAgwodImqt3g gives more information about maternal health and the link: http://www.mamababyhaiti.org/donate/ is a website that gives information about how to donate to maternal health.

Outliers

The Malcolm Gladwell clip we watched in class the other was very interesting to me. I liked his view on hard work and success and that you have to practise to succeed. I know the saying is “practise makes perfect” but I do not think this is enforce in children today. I think if it is too hard or challenging for a child they give up. Gladwell stated that “talent is the desire to practise”. A skill is not perfected without practise and I think this is an important value that we need to instil in children today.

Depravity/Innocence Continuum

I think my parents, teachers, and coaches saw me on the “depravity/innocence continuum” as somewhere in the middle. They did not treat me as a criminal nor did they treat me as a baby. I think they all tried to treat me like my age and abilities. They treated me with respect if I treated them with respect. If I acted mature and responsible than they treated me like that, but if I misbehaved then I got disciplined accordingly. I think they saw me this way, because it taught me respect, responsibility and prepared me to become a functioning adult. I think all adults should try to treat their children this way, as I think it does help them develop respect and responsibility. Parents should treat their children according to their age and maturity level. If a child is special needs then that parent should treat them according to their maturity level not their age level.    

"Evil Child"

In class today we were asked to think of an “evil child” from a movie or T.V. clip. When we were first asked this I thought of horror films, where the child is corrupted, but other people in the class thought of movies that children were not necessarily evil, but mischievous in an innocent kind of way. The movies “Dennis the Menace” and “The Little Rascals” were very interesting examples of this. The little boys in the movies were all energetic, and curious. They got into trouble, as they were doing things they shouldn’t be doing, but not because they were "evil" but because they didn't know any better. This is the “kids will be kids” kind of notion. In both of the movies the boys’ parents are not really involved and they are able to do whatever they want, but they get in trouble by other adults. In these movies the children are viewed as bothersome to the adults. Maybe this is why children are seen as “evil”, but I think children need guidance and in these movies the children did not have that, which caused them to be annoying or “evil” to other adults.

``Dennis the Menace Trailer``

``The Little Rascals`` movie clip  

Hyper Parents and Coddled Kids

The video “Hyper Parents and Coddled Kids” was very interesting to me, because I do see this occurring in our society. I do not see it to the extent that it was shown in the video, but I do see it occur a little bit in my hometown. With my own childhood, I think my parents would do anything for me and my siblings, but on the other hand they did not spoil us. They put us into structured activities to help us learn respect, responsibility, commitment, and independence, but they did not put us into activities to help “build our resume”. I think some parents are too worried about competing against other families and having the “perfect child” that they do not teach important values, such as respect, responsibility, commitment and independence and they end up spoiling them. Parents want the best for their children. They want their children to have what they didn’t have. The Baby Boomer generation didn’t have the opportunities that their children could have. Baby Boomers decided to have fewer children than their parents, and mother’s started working, which gave them the opportunity to give their children what they didn’t have. Wanting to give their children more opportunity leaded to pressuring, and spoiling their children and the concept of the “hyper parent”.

Social Investment and Children

In class today we were asked to discuss how in our experience how have children been impacted by government cut backs in social programs such as housing, education, health care, social and family services, recreation and culture.

When something is cut out then of course it is going to lead to a change. In cutting back public housing, education, health care, social and family services, recreation and culture children’s life is going to be impacted. I think the big social program that children are impacted by if the government makes cut backs are education.  If teachers are laid off then students are put into larger size classrooms, which means that children are not able to get one on one help and have the best learning experience. When teachers are laid off the special education teacher are being laid off too, which means that the children that need one on one attention are being integrated into regular, larger classrooms. Children with special needs are not getting the special attention they need to grow and thrive. The government needs to recognize this before these children are adults and do not have any standard living skills that they should learn in school. The main reason for school is to prepare children for life this includes children of all abilities. If children with disabilities are not taught life skill then when they are done school they will be on the street, then the government will have another problem.  Recreation is another big impact on children if the government cuts back on it. If there are cut backs on recreation then parents have to come up with the money, which some families cannot afford paying for all the recreation activities that their children want to participate in. Thus the child ends up not being in recreational activities, which could lead to obesity. Then the government has another problem with several young children being obese and having health problems. If the government cuts back health care then the obese, unhealthy children cannot see a doctor and get the help they need. It is a vicious circle. If something is cut back then there are going to be many more problems that arise. Therefore I think welfare state liberalism is the best way to go. I understand that most governments are neoliberalism, because it is less expensive, but cutting back important social programs impacts the people of their country.  

Family and Poverty

The decision question is class the other day was if someone said to you “It’s too bad when families are poor but if they get off their butts they wouldn’t be in that situation. They got themselves into it they can get themselves out of it!” What would you say to this person?

After discussing it with the class we came up with many ideas of what we could say to that person. We said it depends on the situation, don’t make assumptions about the family, it can depend on the economy that the family is in poverty, you shouldn’t stereotype, some people have different priorities and people may have a lack of education on how to handle their finances.   

I think there are many reasons why people are in poverty, so it is not right to judge them. I think public housing is a great thing in Canada because it helps families that are trying to get out of poverty a chance. Like in the film “Farewell Oak Street” these families were working hard, but they just didn`t have the resources to get out of that situation, so public housing helps them so they can get out of that situation. I think it all depends on the situation that the family is in poverty. Someone could be born into that situation and it is very hard to get out of that situation and transition into middle class. The economy also has to do with people being in poverty, which also is a situational circumstance. If the economy is bad than it is not necessarily that person`s fault that they are not doing well financially. People also have different priorities some people don`t think it is very important that their house, car and other items are not paid for. This could also be from a lack of education. They may not know the value of money and waste their money. My parents taught me the value of money but some people do not get taught that valuable skill. My parents also taught me that if you want something you should save up for it, not just get a loan, as you may not be able to pay back the loans. It is important to not make assumptions and not to stereotype, because you never know what their situational circunstance is. Some people may think public housing is not a good thing, as tax payers in Canada would have to pay for some of it, but I think that it is better than having young families on the street and living in poor conditions.