Parenthood is always difficult - WEEK 231

There is no manual for parenting, for years many authors have written a thousand ways on how to help parents to do their best according to the psychologist, philosophy, experiences or simply the decade. So it can be deduced that if you need a book to help you it is because being a parent has always been a difficult task, what we have changed are the people according to the time in which we exist.

Fifty years ago the responsibility of educating and taking care of the home was a women’s thing, most mothers were dedicated exclusively to the family and did not have or were not allowed to go out to work because the man was in charge of providing, so the man rarely or never helped at home and with the children. Duties were well defined for each member of the couple (mother and father).

Thirty years ago things had changed moderately. My brother was born exactly thirty years ago, by which time my mom was working, which she wasn’t when my sister and I were born. My brother had to go to a day care center all day long, so he was almost raised by a lady outside the family whom he later called aunt. But at the same time my mom was working she was also doing all the household chores because my dad who had been raised the old fashioned way still behaved like the parents of 50 years ago, simply as a provider. So my mom had a double job because she worked on the street and also worked at home, with the difference that she had monetary independence, money that she spent buying things for her children and for the house.

The care of her children consisted of keeping us fed and helping us with our school activities among other things, my mother did not worry about how we entertained ourselves because at that time there were only two national channels and they had a special children’s programming in the afternoon and when we were not watching television we were probably playing in front of the house with the neighbors.

Currently most mothers have to leave home to work, some do it out of necessity because they are single mothers and others for personal fulfillment. Many of the children are cared for in daycare centers, with grandmothers or a relative. I am a teacher and out of 30 students between 8 and 9 years old, only 3 mothers are housewives dedicated exclusively to the upbringing of their children. The difference m between the mother of 30 years ago and the mother of today lies in the fact that for 30 years women have been teaching all their children equally as far as the maintenance of the home is concerned, which means that nowadays not only women take care of the home but men also participate in the upbringing of the children and not only being the provider. This makes it easier now than it was 30 years ago because there is support from both parents.

As I said, I had a quiet and healthy childhood, with no worries for my parents, watching cartoons on TV and playing ball with the neighbors, now we parents are worried about what our children see on each of the screens that we ourselves provide them, we are afraid that evil will reach them through one of those windows and in many cases we do not even know what they are learning and we are not even aware of the time they spend connected. This point in my opinion makes parenting more difficult at this time than before.

So going back to my point at the beginning, parenting will always be difficult, what changes is the time in which it is our turn to be parents.