ETHICAL PARENTING

Ethical Parenting

Ethical Parenting

Introduction

Tell yourself that every day. How you treat and respond to your child should come from a knowledgeable, deliberate sense of what you want to accomplish. Always ask yourself: What effect will my decision have on my child? When it comes to genuine expressions of warmth and affection, you cannot love your child too much. It is simply not possible to spoil a child with love. What we often think of as the product of spoiling a child is never the result of showing a child too much love. It is usually the consequence of giving a child things in place of love—things like leniency, lowered expectations or material possessions.

Ethical Parenting

Parenting today is a difficult and challenging responsibility. Although childbearing may appear instinctive, childrearing is not. It is immensely time consuming and requires much effort. Parenting is one of the most ambitious and complex tasks one can undertake. If done well, however, it can be incredibly rewarding. The acquisition of knowledge about how to raise children to be well-adjusted adults is not something a wise society would leave to chance. Nevertheless, the vast majority of individuals who are expected to protect, nurture, and guide their children receive little, if any, formal preparation. The importance of parenthood and parenting demand greater recognition and attention (Fine, 1989). Parenting information and skills were traditionally passed down from generation to generation. This informal process may not suffice with the advent of a more mobile society and a richer understanding of the salience of effective parenting in the development of well-rounded and emotionally healthy children. Numerous myths and misconceptions persist about parenthood complicated by the lack of sufficient and reliable guidelines for effective parenting. Changing roles and values create ambiguity and uncertainty for many parents. Economic and social conditions increase stress on contemporary families (Hicks & Williams, 1981). This special issue focuses on the expanding field ofparenting education.

The connection between family science research and its application through parenting education programs has long been taken for granted. Family science must make clear its interest and engagement in the field to insure quality programs informed by the best pedagogical practices and sound family science research and theory. The time has come, as Doherty (1999) recently stated, for family scientists to decide to make a "vigorous commitment" in advancing parenting education because if we decide not to others with less expertise and professional involvement may exploit parents' requests for information and knowledge to their own advantage. The concept of parenting education is certainly not new. In fact, it has had an emerging presence in America since the colonial period (Croake & Glover, 1977).

However, it was informal and unorganized until the progressive era when the formation of the National congress of Mothers (later known as the Parent-Teacher Association) emphasized parenting education as a means of focusing its members on their "moral responsibility for the well-being of home and family life in their communities and even throughout the nation" (Schlossman, 1976, ...