Considering Most Mothers as Being the Major Caretakers in Their Childrens Lives - Research Paper Example

Families A parent is one who takes care of their offspring in their species. In the case of humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child. Parenting is the act of taking care of one’s child. Every child is sired by a father and a mother; however this does not necessarily mean that they have to be the parents to the child that is born. A child may therefore be raised by different caretakers, for example, adoptive parents, grandparents and other relatives. Parenting practices are however shaped differently by races and cultures. In most of these cultures, they believe that the father should be the breadwinner while the mother is left at home looking after the children. This are the gender roles that have been instilled and have been observed over the years till globalization started. The social science literature has always depicted the image of parental role mostly based on gender. The ideal image of what entails a good mother or father is highly based on gender. Based on previous research, a mother spends the most amount of time with the children, which contrasts with the father, who can spend even as little as three hours with the children per week. For a long time, the ideal woman has always been associated with being a mother. A man on the other hand should play the role of the primary provider and should assist in the bringing up of the children. Most of the beliefs idealizes mothering and assumes that the only way a woman can be fulfilled is if she became a mother. She is supposed to leave her job after the birth of her children and take time to nurture them. She is to be their primary caretaker who should provide into their every need and protect them. Moreover, she shouldn’t even resume work but stay at home and wait upon her children. However, if she goes back to work, she should take up a part time job that allows her enough time to take care of her family. This is what was expected of every woman and was mostly practiced by the middle class and high class white women in the United States. The African American women were however did not practice this role. They were forced into the labor market due to slavery and poverty, and were forced to delegate their mothering duties to their relatives and other related women. They on the other hand had to spend a lot of time playing this role to the white children of the families they worked for. The same has applied to the Latino families, who weren’t held back from working by their mothering responsibilities. Most of these women are forced to work so as to help supplement their husband’s meager wages. This was just an extension to their duties and did not exclude them from their duties as mothers and wives. Working for the American and Latino women was part of their responsibility. However with the high media influence parenting patterns are changing. Over the years, media sources like books, magazine articles, programs have all provided alternative parenting methods. Most of them have helped in breaking the stereotyping that has been associated with parenting. In the media image of parenting, men and women can now switch roles. Quite a number of them are being left at home to take care of the families while the women go out to work and become the breadwinners. The media encourages men to get more involved in their children’s lives and not only play the role of being the financial provider. By this a father should be more intimate to their children, a role that has been long left to the mothers. An example of an advertisement that depicts a mother is the P&G London 2012 Olympic Games Film. It goes to show how it takes the mother’s persistence and encouragement to produce some of the best athletes in the world. In the advertisement we see how a mother helps the child rise early in the morning, and stays by their child’s side as they practice in sports and how they don’t give up, till the last minute when they win. From this advertisement we clearly see it fit the social science literature of a mother since it is clear that a mother is the parent who plays the big part of being supportive to their child and being most involved in their life. However, the gender equality movement which has been a raging issue on the media for a long time also comes with a change in the parenting roles. In the recent times, more couples are being encouraged to go work so as to equally provide for their families. This equality also applies in the bringing up of the children where both parents can both come home at the end of the day and take on the parenting role with ease. This would also ease up the responsibility of being the bread winner on one of the parents. Media has also given alternatives like day care centers which offer paid services to take care of the children while their parents are at work. Though this has eased a lot of burden and has its advantages like helping the children make a network of friends, it has served to pull the parents further from their children. Unlike the instances where the child was the maternal responsibility and they would grow attached easily, now parents miss out on many things that are happening in their children’s lives. In conclusion, the media agrees with the social science literature, whereby it shows most mothers as being the major caretakers in their children’s lives. A lot of stories are given showing the big roles the mothers play and how they contribute to their children’s success every day. Though there are those advertisements that show parenting as a role that involves different groups of people, most of them show the mothers like the main support. And this advertisement is one of the ways that the media has proved to be in agreement with the social science literature. References Read More