If Children Have a ‘Right’ to a Particular Kind of Upbringing, What Should Their Upbringing Include or Entail?

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Introduction: Each individual knowledge of the way to bring up children is often learnt from the way they were brought up and the surroundings they lived in. Upbringing can be seen as a cycle. One learn from their parents and their parents learnt from theirs, thus the pattern of parenting skills and methods used to bring up a child is passed on and repeated from generation to generation. The most influential role model in children’s life’s are their parents. When considering this, it is then thought to be crucial for a parent to set the correct example for their children to learn from. This includes behaviours that are acceptable and those that are not. However, who best knows what the best example is and which behaviours are acceptable, and which are not? In fact, is this actually up to the parent to decide? This essay will keep these questions in mind as it discusses if children have a right to a particular upbringing, and if so, what should their upbringing include or entail? The parenting process includes protecting, nourishing, and guiding the child; this contains a series of interaction between the parent and child. Baumrind (1971) identifies three parental responses and interactions with their children. As mentioned above, parenting styles relate to their own experiences, however parenting styles may change as a result of independent research or feedback from others. ‘The three parenting styles are permissive, authoritarian and authoritative’ (bookmark2). the styles followed by parents may not fit into any category, as parents can combine the styles depending on the situation , age and sex of the child> (bookmark 2). Permissive parents are seen to give more freedom, have no boundaries and offer no guidelines for the child. Authoritarian parents can be demanding, give out punishments, have restricted choices and have limited freedom of opinions.
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