What It Meant to Be a Good Parent
Table of Contents
Introduction
Effective communication is essential since it allows individuals to express their emotions and desires to others in the community, and also to react to requirements by others. Social networks are crucial to reduce psychological tension and also help to enhance appropriate relationship with friends and relatives. Improving the skill of communication between individuals allows for expression of sentiments as well as the ability to get reaction and support. Several theories explain why communication in human is the way it is. An example is George Herbert Mead’s symbolic interaction theory which shows that the majority of what most human beings do when they interact, is talk to each other. In this case, parenting greatly requires adequate communication to bring in all the benefits of kinship and above all, enhance behaviors that are socially acceptable. Therefore, to be a good parent, one has to ensure that his/her children get the best form of interaction to enable them know themselves better and make the best out of themselves.
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Interaction in the family
The family is the institution with the strongest social bonds. These bonds are greatly enhanced by communication, either verbally or physically. As a parent, the way I perceive children is different from any other person. In this capacity, the way I act and respond to my children concerns is different from the way I respond to other people. This is based on the meanings and value I assign to them. For example, if my child and a stranger are in need of some necessity and I can only provide for one individual, I will provide for my child and leave the stranger dissatisfied. This is one of the ways in which we construct social reality and create an understanding of issues around us. The meanings I assign to different issues and objects in my life are solely out of interaction with them, and in a great capacity, this is negotiated by the use of language. This implies that without language, everything my children and I interact with in life would make no sense. The manner in which I treat my children is a blend of all the possible high-quality options I have learned over the years from interaction with other people in the society. In this respect, I have a specific way in which I view my children, a way that no one else in the society does. This makes me treat them in a special way that they cannot find anywhere else.
Interpreting the value of symbols
In interpreting the value of people and meaning of issues, symbols create a stimulus in our minds to enable this. When my baby cry, I symbolized this either to mean the baby is hungry or sleepy and if the crying exceeds fifteen minutes, I get worried, for this signifies that the baby might be unwell. When dealing with my teenage child, I try understanding the way he feels and find out the most appropriate way to act. I also know when my child is happy or unhappy based on the way he responds verbally or physically and take action that favors the situation. I either console him or leave him alone for some time until I am convinced that things have gotten better. On my kid’s birth day, I organize a party, to allow my children interact with more family members and friends. This union gives my children the opportunity to learn more by interacting with people in the family that they are rarely exposed to. It also gives them an opportunity to borrow beneficial habits or get motivated by significant persons during the interaction.
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I also appreciate the meaning of symbols when I engage my children in aptitude test and riddles to enhance their critical thinking. This is typically the use of symbols to categorize what they identify in their daily life.
The ‘me and I’
The ‘me’ is formed by the people one interacts with in life, and for a child, the parents forms the greatest part of this interaction. I kept talking to my kids when they were young, before they knew how to speak. This was the primary way to teach them how to speak. It is the gathered experiences which I expose my children to that make them have an understanding of who they are. This includes the habit of minding, having to think critically to unravel solution to existing conditions to better their social capacity and enable them interacts better with people in the society. Therefore, ‘me and I’ are a result of one’s interactions with the society and how one communicates. Another social construction of ‘me’ is by the concept of looking–glass. This is the characters my children develop by interacting with significant persons in life and changes constantly with the more people they interact with. I institute the greatest part of this influence; I thereby try and expose them to only the best of my characters.
The symbolic interaction theory has enabled me understand that the person ‘me’ is not born, but is rather made by the interaction one has with the society, and I play a major role in the self actualization of my children.
Conclusion
The symbolic interaction theory agrees that one takes roles and assumes perspective of others in various areas like play, organized activities and following rules. This leads to one taking the role of the generalized other to represent himself or herself. Despite society being in constant change with time, individuals take roles by interacting with others in it and rehearse them appropriately until they can use them to benefit themselves. As a good parent, I give my children the opportunity to effectively learn how to communicate and rehearse the good habits they pick from the society.