BEHS 343 Week 7 Discussion: Work-Life Balance for Modern Parents
BEHS 343 Week 7 Discussion Work-Life Balance for Modern Parents
Work-Life Balance for Modern Parents
Children’s growth and development are highly dependent on parenting styles. As a result, parenting dynamics and outcomes continue changing as it evolves in structure, size, and responsibilities. Inevitably, parenting challenges have diversified, and parents must overcome them to nurture children appropriately.
Modern Parenting and Good Parenting
Being a modern parent implies raising children in the digital age and consistently dealing with work and life demands. Broadly, modern parents are doing a good job raising their children. They are raising children in complex and challenging conditions but still achieving positive parenting. Among many challenges characterizing modern parenting is work-life balance since parents must work, have stable families, and enjoy their hobbies. This is a huge challenge considering that each element is highly demanding. Divorce rates are also high, and the concept (of divorce) is more embraced in current society (D’Onofrio & Emery, 2019). Other challenges making parenting difficult in the 21st century are technology and behavioral problems. Technology is a significant problem since parents must control the information that children consume and protect their privacy (United Nations, 2021). Amid these challenges, parents are raising children successfully and are highly involved in parenting. Williams et al. (2022) support the idea that modern parents are more involved in their children’s lives since they are more aware of the positive outcomes of high engagement. Such outcomes include high self-esteem, academic excellence, and better social skills. Positive engagement also prevents behavioral issues (Waterford.org, 2022). These outcomes have been integral in achieving good parenting. Defining features of good parenting include parental involvement, positive development, and parents’ active role in nurturing, protecting, and guiding children.
Week 1 Discussion Questions
- Which parenting style(s) is associated with the most beneficial outcomes as far as a child’s development and behaviors are concerned?
- Parenting styles affect a child’s future success on many aspects, including parent-child relationship, interaction with peers, competence, self-esteem, and social life, among others. Which impact area should be the primary concerns for parents and/or caregivers?
- Is the family’s role as the basic social unit being threatened by the changes in family/parenting patterns?
This course answered these questions since the connection between parenting structures and children’s developmental outcomes has
been explored in-depth. The course also offered an opportunity to explore the challenges facing children growing up in non-traditional families and how family dynamics affect their growth. The evolution of family patterns has emerged as an inevitability that society must embrace. More answers that offer different perspectives are also necessary to effectively answer these questions. A suitable example is peer-reviewed sociological journal articles with unbiased opinions on the changing family patterns.
BEHS 343 Week 7 Discussion: Work-Life Balance for Modern Parents References
D’Onofrio, B., & Emery, R. (2019). Parental divorce or separation and children’s mental health. World psychiatry: Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 18(1), 100–101. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20590
United Nations. (2021). Children’s right to privacy in the digital age must be improved. https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2021/07/childrens-right-privacy-digital-age-must-be-improved
Waterford.org. (2022). How family engagement leads to student success. https://www.waterford.org/education/how-parent-involvment-leads-to-student-success/
Williams, M. E., Foran, H. M., Hutchings, J., Frantz, I., Taut, D., Lachman, J. M., … & Heinrichs, N. (2022). Exploring factors associated with parent engagement in a parenting program in Southeastern Europe. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 31(11), 3097-3112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02411-0
Based on your weekly readings from the course and any other credible sources that you find, answer the following questions:
1) Are modern parents doing a good job of raising their children?
This is a much trickier question that it seems at first glance. In order to respond, you need to ask yourself two crucial questions. First, what does it mean to be a “modern” parent – what are the challenges that modern parents face that make parenting especially hard in the 21st century? Second, you need to define what “good parenting” is. What is the metric we use to define success as parents?
The responses to this question are likely to be quite diverse, but that’s okay. An excellent response will address the two crucial questions, which lead to an answer that incorporates at least 3 of the weekly learning resources (include citations and references). In addition, find and incorporate at least one credible news article or journal article that supports your response. This article should be no more than 2 years old.
2) Refer back to the Week 1 discussion where you identified 2 or 3 questions about parenting that you wanted to have answered. Copy your questions into this discussion. Were your questions answered in this course? If yes, how? If not, how would you go about finding the answers to your questions?