The influence of parents’ interests on the child development
The influence of parents’ interests on the child development
Parent panic is a real occurrence today where many who become parents worry about how their actions will affect their children. The only thing, indeed, that should concern people are parents who don’t care about how their actions might affect their kids! For decades, psychologists have known that the rules set for kids, the environment they’re in, and parents’ personal habits can have profound effects on their kids.
This is an aspect of psychology that has been studied the world over and continues to be examined today. The issue of child development has been the subject of many an essay over the years and is still of great interest, and great concern, to everyone. Child development, itself, has evolved over the years to become an entire field of psychology. Indeed, there are many examples of papers that can be found online on just this subject alone.
There is the Good…
A parent’s interests, guidance, and behaviors can have incredibly positive outcomes on their child or children according to the Feelings Detective. A more sports-oriented parent, for instance, might influence their child towards football. By sitting next to a parent and watching football games often, a child is more likely to see football as a positive part of their childhood. Going to games, talking on the subject, and bonding over football leads to a closer relationship between parent and child.
Wanting to emulate that parent, the child then might take an active interest in the sport. Soon, they might become part of the high school football team and then pursue a successful career in the sport.
Another example is a parent who is a painter him, or herself, and spends much of their time painting with their child. As time goes on, the child finds that they also are bonding as they hand their guardian a paintbrush or help them to get a new canvas. This experience also results in a positive experience that brings the young one closer to their mother or father.
As they grow up, the youngster might just decide to take an interest in art during primary school. Once they reach high school, that pursuit might continue to grow into taking art classes. By the time they’re ready for post-secondary education, they might just be looking at an art college.
There is Also the Bad…
The many aspects of a caregiver’s parenting can influence children for the better, but they can also influence them for the worse. The best instance of this is the oft-heard saying from the eighties and nineties of: “Parents who do drugs have kids who do drugs.” The reasons for drug abuse with minors are many and varied, of course, but there is some truth to this idiom.
When a child sees a parent who is always indulging in an illicit drug, they are more likely to view it as a positive aspect to that person’s life, and therefore, are influenced towards giving it a try.
There are other examples of this, too. A parent who gleefully commits plagiarism on a regular basis and teaches their kids that it’s okay can have long-term consequences. When that child becomes a university student, they might end up considering that writing a paper themselves is a waste of time and plagiarize, as well.
It has been observed that drug use, violent behavior and intolerance can all influence a young person to take up the same habits and behaviors as they grow up. Those people tend not to become college students or successful writers in adulthood.
There is the Truth…
In the end, there’s no concrete way to be fully certain that one thing that a parent does will influence their kids for the rest of their lives. When it comes to major things, like attending university, doing well in school, and having good study and social habits, students, for example, are likely to have been heavily influenced by their parents.
A love of chocolate cake, however, might influence a child towards loving chocolate, themselves, but a parent needn’t worry about the long term consequences in that case. After all, even psychology sometimes admits that a cake is just a cake!
