Parenting

Parenting

It is said that parenting skills are passed down from generation to generation. Sometimes I wonder how brothers and sisters can have extremely different styles of raising their children. Some can be great parents while others can seem like they are totally lost. Sometimes the ones who seem to be the crazy parents turn out with the successful children while the parents who seem to be the good ones often have kids who don't turn out so well.

My mother is a good example of a great mom. She would give up anything for her children to make them happy. She is also strict when she has to be or thinks its necessary. It's not easy raising five kids on your own but, she has somehow pulled it off. She worked 3 jobs and still found time to help us with our homework and to show up for as many school functions as she could. Neither of us kids have been in any kind of real trouble and so far have turned out pretty well.

A good example of a not so great mom would be my aunt. I used to think she was great because she would always let her kids have their way. I remember wishing sometimes she was my mom. She allowed her oldest son to drop out of school at the age of 15 because he was having trouble with school work. Not because he couldn't do it, but because he didn't want to. Her youngest son is still in school but she feels she has failed with the first one by not spending enough time with him so she takes him out of school to spend time together. Both of her kids have significant problems. Her youngest doesn't know how to interact with other kids because he spends all of his time with his mother and therefore is having problems in school also. The oldest of the two is 23 and still lives at home. He has problems with drugs, alcohol and doesn't show any promise of ever making it on his own.

Both parents were raised by the same mother and father and only a couple of years