Assignment 1: Molly Luchtel's Post

1.  My mom was an authoritative parent.

2.  Authoritative parents exhibit high levels of demandingness and nurturance. They also frequently use explanations to explain their parenting practices.

Growing up, my mom always expected A's and B's in school. She made sure that homework came first, before sports and free time activities. This is an example of her demandingness. When working on homework, if my siblings or I had a question, she always took the time to sit down and work on it with us.  She did her best to help us understand the homework, so we could learn how to do it on our own. This is an example of her use of explanations and nurturance.  When we received high grades, she always told us she was very proud. This is another example of her nurturance.

3.  When I become a parent, I hope to use an authoritative parenting style. I want to be authoritative because this is the way I was raised, and I feel it led to the best outcomes for me and my siblings. Also, as we learned in class, children of authoritative parents tend to do better academically and socially. They tend to be good at self-regulation and personal responsibility. They are also cooperative and work well with others. 

Assignment 1: Parenting Styles (5 points)

Goals for this activity:

1.  Apply information from class to your own life.

2.  Recognize the parenting style you were raised with.

3.  Think about your future and what type of parenting behaviors you want to exhibit, as well as how these behaviors will affect your child.

During the first week of class, we discussed different types of parenting, including authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, indulgent, indifferent, inconsistent, and traditional. While every parent exhibits some characteristics from each of these parenting styles, all parents have one dominant parenting style. Think about your upbringing and various parenting practices exhibited by your parents. Consider the actions of one adult who raised you and describe the following:

1.  The dominant parenting style of this individual.  (1 point)

2.  Give 1 example from your childhood of how this person exhibited characteristics from this parenting style.  (2 points)

3.  Think ahead into your future and imagine you have children. What parenting style do you want to exhibit most?  Why?  What child outcomes are associated with this parenting style?  (2 points)

Welcome to HDFS 349!

Welcome to HDFS 349 in the fall of 2009!  We are excited that you are here, and we look forward to getting to know you better!  In the first half of the semester, we will be studying parenting, beginning with pregnancy and following the journey of parenthood throughout the lifetime.  In the second half, we will be be looking at family diversity, including such topics as divorce, remarriage, step families, culturally diverse families, work and family, family policy, and gender issues within families.

Throughout the semester, we will be asking each of you to contribute to this blog your own unique life experiences and how they relate to class. Remember that professors and other students in the class are able to read what you write here; please only share the information you feel comfortable sharing with everyone.  Our goals for the class blog are:

1.  Relate content information from class to your own real-life experiences.

2.  Learn from the experiences of others, and teach others what you have learned from your own experiences.

3.   Gather resources for students, parents, and practitioners.