The Ditchdigger's Daughters

Living in the tall skyscrapers and smoggy air of Harlem is very different than living in a small town with barns and grassy fields. You will see how living in Harlem effects parenting, compared to the parenting in a normal neighborhood. In this essay on The Treasure of Lemon Brown by Walter Dean Myers, the differences in parenting style, discipline of grades, and activeness of fathers between Greg’s father and my father are made clear.

* Empathy for African American children and their parents who have to enforce the unfair rules (para 4): “his father or mother slaps him and drags him to the back of the bus”

In Annette Lareau’s study and subsequent book Unequal Childhoods, she examined the lives of twelve children of different social classes. In particular, she focused on parenting styles within their households and their effects on the children’s future and found a direct correlation. Two of the children from her study were Alexander Williams and Tyrec Taylor, both African-American nine-year-old boys.

Author Harriette Pipes McDoo addresses how family values are influenced by racism in her book, Black Families. She expounds that the challenges faced by African American families have given them the ability to strengthen their core family values through overcoming racially fueled injustices (McDoo 69-71). Factors like racism, poverty, and the fight for equal rights are all factors which vary across the nation within each household affecting individual family value systems. Along with the challenges of adversity, each passing generation inside of American culture have emphasized less and less on multigenerational relationships with families moving and growing into new families to new locations. This rift in the familial structure stems from the evolution of the traditional family combined with the self-motivated desire to succeed

Most parents impose very high expectations on their children. While some expect their sons to become professionals in respected fields, others encourage their daughters to find good husbands. The parents impose these expectations without consulting their children. In most situations, the expectations of the parent deviate from the dreams of the child. This is what becomes evident when one reads Sandra Cisneros’ Only Daughter and Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue. In these short stories, the expectations that the parents of the narrators elicit mixed reactions. The expectations of the narrators’ parents hold them back from attaining personal goals while causing them to desperately desire approval and eventually accepting and embracing their parents..

The article relates to the bond many daughters share with their mother and how it develops as they grow older. As the daughters grow older and they become more independent of their mothers, they grow rebellious and do what they think is the better option. The article says, "That 's the way it is until you 're about thirteen, when she suddenly becomes the most ignorant, benighted,

There are many social factors that affected the lives of the author Wes Moore and the other Wes Moore, such as a possible social factors, which includes education, the place that they lived in or how the neighborhood affected the way they acted, and how his family and peers played a big role in their future. Without education or any type of degree, it would be difficult to find jobs and earn money. Without a job, depending on the neighborhood a person lives in, they could easily get influenced in a bad way. As a child that had grew up not having his or her parents in the household could really affect the lives of their child as they grow up.

Expectations in this book affected how they act because there parents themselves and the community

   Historically, the job of women in society is to care for the husband, the home, and the children. As a homemaker, it has been up to the woman to support the husband and care for the house; as a mother, the role was to care for the children and pass along cultural traditions and values to the children. These roles are no different in the African-American community, except for the fact that they are magnified to even larger proportions. The image of the mother in African-American culture is one of guidance, love, and wisdom; quite often the mother is the shaping and driving force of African-American children. This is reflected in the literature of the

Research shows that children are more susceptible to commit crimes, fail in maintaining long lasting relationships and develop depression as well as other psychological disorders from the effects of bad parenting. In fact, many people grow up treating others the same way their parents have treated them with reference to their parents’ values, behaviours and attitudes. Harper Lee, an American author, expressed her childhood experiences in Alabama through writing the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. In this novel Harper Lee highlights the prevailing racist attitudes that existed in Alabama in the 1930s. Lee does this by having the parenting style of Atticus, and its impact on his children, stand in contrast to these prevailing racist attitudes. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys that Atticus Finch is a great parent because he is not a hypocrite, he has a sense of fairness and he has good morals and values.

Majority of African-Americans, about 89% of all black ethnicity, lived in slavery from the 1700’s to about 1863. (Mintz, “Facts about the Slave Trade and Slavery”). A fictional African-American is Nanny, a woman who grew up in times when slavery was very popular. She passes on her experiences and stories to her granddaughter, Janie, which affects her decisions and choices in life. Janie Crawford receives Nanny’s advice and multiple traits in her adolescent years. Everything she had accomplished in life was based on what Nanny thought was best for her, only because she didn’t want Janie to be submissive like she was in her time of slavery. Janie, the protagonist of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is shown to be complex by her dialogue, thoughts, and actions. Janie was both serene and gleeful yet turbulent and upset.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and review my observation of a 7 year old African American male who is being raised by his grandmother (45 year old Bi-racial female who has 9 children of her own; 7 of the children are still in the house). During my observation of “Jackson”, I focused on the following domains of child development:

Sweetness’ daughter is not only successful, but sends money to her mother every month because Sweetness as a good heart and still cares about her mother. Although, having a terrible and outrageous mother, her daughter turned out to be a proud black independent woman. Even though, the father had left and having a terrible mom, she surpassed the suppressions that had been placed onto her. Although, the daughter has made herself successful, the father is still out of the picture. Which isn’t unusual because the stereotype that all men leave the women as the kid comes to existence is shown in this book as well as “Desiree’s Baby”.

There are several parenting styles which guide children throughout their life. These parenting styles can be either good or bad and this will have an effect on the child; either a positive or a negative one. This essay investigates the parenting styles from which emerge questions about the role of the mother and the father. It also focuses on the ways that either too much mothering or too much fathering might have an effect on the child’s identity later on in its life.

Parenting, lauded as one of the most difficult jobs in the world, means constantly being under the scrutiny of others, including your children’s friends. This is no different for the parenting styles of Atticus Finch, Bob Ewell, and Walter Cunningham, three parents from Harper Lee’s critically acclaimed novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Three different parentings styles led to three different types of children: the curious minded, the rascals, and the respectable, showing that how a parent treats their child and others in their lives does matter.