Week Eight

Babies! they are little wonders of joy that bring happiness and smile to everyone's face with their cuteness. Babies are so naive, innocent and adorable and everyone loves to play with them and pull their cheeks. Every one only wants to do the fun part and no one wants the crying, changing dirty diapers and sleepless night. I feel like kids are blessings in disguise. They are hard to handle and can take everything you got from time, energy and sleep, but they are worth it. There is no right way or wrong way of parenting as every kid has their own needs and requires different style to parenting. Parenting style differ from country to country and are different in every culture.
The article is there love after the baby is very interesting and it reflects American expectations that couples have from their partners. Women expect men to do 50-50 work whereas men expect everything to remain almost the same. Compare now the roles of a mother and a father were pretty clear which made things easier for them as a couple. They knew exactly what was expected from each other and as long as they fulfill their duties and did their part there shouldn't be any problems.Problem now is that couples do not know what is expected of them. In their mind they are doing what they think is right, but at the same time things are not really panning out.
I do not have any kids at the moment and i  not know by any means how good or bad it is to raise a child. What kind of problems can arise between a couple after having a child. I know that whenever i do have kids i know because of the culture i was brought up in that i would have do take care of the child the most. For the father spending time with the kid was after he gets back from work and isn't required to help with the baby unless asked. I know i will be making few minor changes to that as women in my culture did not have jobs as opposed to now, hence it was easier to take care of the kids. I know i would expect more from my husband as a father because i too would have a job and would share all the responsibilities equally.

Week Seven

Who doesn't want a happy ever after? Everyone is seeking happiness in one form or another. When two people get married the only thought they have is to spend the rest of their life with this person only.  Things don’t always go as planned and in the end people end up having divorces.  As It is mentioned in the article 7 myths that can kill your marriage that in past few decades divorce rate have increased tremendously in United  States. Why is that? Is having divorce become part of the American culture? Does American not take matrimony seriously anymore? Do couples face more problems than their parents did? I can go on and ask all sorts of questions but I do not know the answer to them. I feel like people think there is always an option which causes problems in their marriage. Instead of working on problems they already have with their spouse, people rather go and make new ones with different people. Why can’t they solve the problems that they already have?

I am fortunate that my parents are still together after being married for over 30 years. I can only imagine the strain kids feel when their parents go through divorce. Whenever my parents have an argument I get upset and I feel like the whole house’s atmosphere changes. Living in a house where your parents are the verge of having a divorce and then going through with it is very traumatic. Majority of the kids suffer through divorce at young age which in result forces them to mature at a sooner age. Kids take everything to heart and them still developing cognitive thinking.  I know a lot of kids that are raised by single parents and they struggle every single day. There are always money problems and the parent never seems to have enough time as they are trying to make the ends meet. It’s a lose-lose situation for both the parent and the child. It is very unfortunate for the kids to go through such trauma.

Week Six

Oh the joys of being a teenager in today's day and age. There are just so many things that go on with a teenager and their brains that it is hard to pin point one thing. From trying to do good in school,to trying to be popular, being "adults", figuring out who you are and many more things that are on a teenagers priority list.

Our culture puts a lot of pressure on teenagers especially with the perfect image that is put out in front of teenagers. All the girls look up to Victoria Secret models and want to be like them and desire a body like them where as boys look at professional athletes, models and actors as role models. In the magazines they see a perfect face and body with absolute no flaws and who wouldn't want to be perfect? The problem lies when teenagers ignore to look at the real picture and choose to admire the photo shopped world of media. Due to this perfect image girls start to have low self esteem and they start to dislike their bodies and themselves. In order to be like that model some girls unfortunately take extreme measures like plastic surgery, fad dieting, starving themselves and many more things.

With this obsession girls face other problems as well. They want to feel loved, wanted, pretty and cared for. There is nothing wrong with that but girls end up doing things that put them in uncomfortable situations. They get peer pressured into drugs, sex or get depressed. Emotions run strong as a teenager anyways and with the pressure on kids now a days is only making things worse.

I remember looking at those magazines and sometime wanting to be that pretty. As a teenager I always compared myself to other kids which did not help my situation. I was lucky enough to go to a school with moderate amount of  kids and it was easier to make friends. I have changed four different high schools in two different cities and i know how hard it is to start over. I feel like in schools that have more kids and in bigger cities it is much harder to survive. There are more chances of being bullied, teased or getting in trouble. I can only imagine how high school would be now. At that age it feels like the most important thing in life and how everything matters so much. Today I know better and I realize how really important was high school. I was always told to never take things to seriously in high school, as no one would care after high school and the actual world is a totally different place. I now know how true it is.

Week Five

This week’s reading is personal and relate able and also on a very controversial topic: Parenting. The article parenting: The Lost Art goes over many controversial topics and different point of views. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article and chapter as well. There is no right or wrong way of parenting. All around the world kids are brought up with different parenting styles and techniques, some are result in good kids and some do not. Is it only parents and their style of parenting to blame?

Like in life there are many different factors that play important role in one situation and same applies to how a child turns out. Environmental, Social, Heredity and Parenting all play important roles in a child's development. A lot of the times I have heard many people say that they don't want their kids to" hate" them when they are teenagers. Every teenager goes through a phase where they like and listen to their friends more than their parents. At that age priorities are always changing and "fitting in" becomes important for survival. Parents a lot of the time compromise with the kids and let them do as they please in order to keep the kids safe and for them to like their parents and not do anything irrational. There isn't one party to blame why certain kids behave badly but are at fault many factors they lead to such situations.

The chapter goes over four different styles of parenting and I can relate to authoritarian parenting style. It is not one parent, it is a culture and that is how kids are brought up. While growing up rules were always set and it is the way it is. I was given an explanation if I asked for it but a lot of the times I was not allowed to. There was absolute no talking back, always respecting and listening to elders, parents are right and many other ground rules. The environment I grew up in was not harsh but compare to American parenting it seemed harsh. I remember in High School I always compared my friend's parents to mine. I always remember wondering that why can’t I go out late or why can they do that and I am not allowed? It was a cultural difference and in our culture too much freedom can result in bad behavior or drugs or being sexually active. 

Every parent thinks they are doing the best they can and their way of parenting is best for their child. There is no book written that tell you on how to parent your child, as every child is different and unique. One parenting style does not work for every child. 

Week Four

The article Medicating Young Minds was a very relatable and interesting article. Kids and young adults suffering from ADHD are more common than we think. According to the same article up to 10 percent American kids have mental illness. We are living in a society where we tend to lean toward pharmaceutical solutions for almost every health problem. We are medicating young children which are a concern for the parents as no parents want their child to depend on medications. It is a very fine line to how one is diagnosed of ADHD. Is ADHD heredity? Are some children more prone to ADHD if their parents have it as well? What exactly causes ADHD or is a development issue that is linked to prenatal care?

Another topic that caught my attention was Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences. I was not aware of the fact there are different types of intelligences. There are seven different types Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic and existential. There are some of these intelligences that I have encountered in different people for example musical, naturalistic and logical-mathematical. I assumed that this is part of their personality rather than intelligence? I always thought of intelligence as knowledge, able to solve problems, or do certain things and tasks. With this reading I now have a new outlook towards intelligence as it is not limited to ones definition.

Hereditary and Environmental factors also play a role with intelligence. The terms street smart and book smart will fit in this situation as people who are street smart is due to environmental factors. People that have experienced different cultures and environments may or may not have benefit as they might have more knowledge due to their experiences. I have lived in two complete opposite environments which i feel like sometimes gives me a benefit. I can have two different perspectives to a situation and could think of more or different possibilities. As people say the best money spent is on travelling as one can gain and learn so much through the experience. I am sure there is a reason to why people want to explore the world and learn about different parts of the country as it thought of as knowledge.