[lbo-talk] Walking kids to school

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Wed Jan 20 07:42:13 PST 2010


[WS:] I think that the biggest divide in parenting experience is class rather than geography or culture. My experience with my parents back in Poland was not that much different than I can observe among middle class families on this side of the pond. My parents were what is today called "helicopter parents" and very conventional- my dad was the bread winner and a control freak, my mom was a housewife and relationship-oriented, and both belived that they know best what is good for their children (which was typical of thier generation.) I was much closer to my mom than to my dad, while the opposite was true about my sister. I also tried to be different than my parents in both - career selection and parenting style (very laissez faire.)

All of that is very typical of a middle class family here, but very much diferent from family relations often found in the underclasses, both here and on the other side of the pond. Of course, between-class differences in parenting styles are nothing new, a lot has been written about them. But an interesting angle is that the class differences seem to be more pronounced than between-culture or betwee-country differences, which are commonly believed to be significant. The clash of cultures seem to be the clash of social classes that happen to come from different cultures.

Wojtek

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 10:08 PM, Joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:


> My parents emigrated to the U.S. from Romania in 1963. At that time my dad
> was 47 and my mom was 35.
>
> What characterized their generation was 1) they had survived the
> depression, WWII, and Stalinism 2) the women of that generation did not have
> the option of having careers without being mostly de-sexed. A woman who did
> not want children was considered a bit of a monster.
>
> The result of 1) is that there wasn't anything that could happen to me that
> my parents could think of as a tragedy or as dangerous (relative to
> everything they had lived through). They basically considered me "lucky" and
> had zero sympathy for anything I went through.
>
> The result of 2) is that my mother who should have never had children
> because she really didn't want any (she wanted to be a writer), was
> ambivalent at best about her mothering and spent most of her life in a
> bottle (of booze).
>
> I liked my dad, profoundly disliked and feared my mom, and didn't really
> have anything to say to them after I left home at 19. I also got no support
> whatsoever from them; put myself through school, etc.
>
> What would have made a big diff with my parents is if they would have been
> interested in talking about the reality of everything they lived through,
> but they never did. Their generation drank a lot more than they talked.
>
> The situation with my kids is exactly the opposite.
>
> With respect to 1) I grew up in "good times" -- sixties, seventies -- when
> a bohemian existence was still possible AND you could always opt back in to
> the mainstream when necessary AND a good education was almost free. I hope
> I'm wrong, but I think my kids are facing a much harsher world, amidst a
> much more discouraged and ignorant population. So, I don't feel like my
> impulse to protect them and back them up is neurotic, but realistic. And I
> don't think that their worries/suffering pale in comparison to mine.
>
> 2) Since I had a crappy mother, it was important for me to be a good one,
> and because I wound up doing work I did not much enjoy, they really were the
> light of my existence. So, their sense was mostly that I was glad they were
> born. Also, I consciously chose to have kids not because I was expected to
> (on the contrary) but because I really wanted them. I think they sensed that
> and that it made a diff. in our relationship.
>
> My son is 26; my daughter is 16. They are bright, personable, good-hearted
> people, & I wish them the best. What is different and worst (I think) from
> my parents' generation is that they grew up without a dad. Their father
> didn't really know how to be one. I don't know whether this is generational
> or just plain bad luck on my part. A lot of kids grew up with single mothers
> in this generation, and scant or nonexistent extended families, and I
> suspect that wasn't a very good thing. Fathers are important, and it's not
> something that mothers are good at being.
>
> Joanna
>
>
>
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