Parent Interview (Essay Sample)

Parent Interview
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Parent Interview
As part of my course, I was required to interview two different parents to understand how parents think about raising their children. I asked the parents to discuss their parenting styles, whether it was effective, and whether it had affected their kids’ developmental patterns or behavior. I also asked them about their parents’ styles when they were growing up and how they had impacted their developmental patterns or behaviors. At the end of the interviews, I asked the two parents to comment on the effectiveness of the styles and whether they would combine any two or more styles to enhance their children’s developmental patterns. The first parent was a nurse who was married to a teacher and had two children. One of the children was a preschooler, and the other was in senior high school. The second parent was a social worker who was married to a taxi driver and had three children. One of the children was in elementary school, and the other two in middle school.
When I asked the first parent (the registered nurse) about her parenting style, she said she used the authoritative style. The authoritative style is a more democratic authoritarian parenting style. In this style, parents set rules and guidelines that the children are supposed to follow. According to the parent, she allowed her preschooler to play outside with other children. However, she kept looking through the window to check if the child was safe. She also kept reminding the child to stop biting her nails or eating dirt. I further probed the parent to understand how she helped her children socialize. According to her, socialization for the preschooler occurred when she was allowed to play outside. The preschooler was allowed to share her toys with other children. However, the mother would withhold them when the preschooler portrayed selfish tendencies. The senior high school student, on the other hand, was allowed to have a Facebook account. However, she agreed that she would only access the platform after completing her house chores and study.
As a result, the child always finishes her work on time before interacting on social media. The mother also indicated that she monitored her interactions on social media to protect her child from cyberbullies. On weekends, the mother kept away the phones and the toys to allow the children to interact with other family members. Together with the father, they would visit public parks to interact with other families and children. When I asked her about the approach’s effectiveness, she said she was yet to find its fault. According to her, the approach helped the children appreciate that she was in higher authority than them. She also said that denying the children the toys or the phones until they had finished their house chores had facilitated obedience training. The park visits on Sundays were also helpful since the children had supervised interactions with other children and families.
In the mother’s view, this is better than allowing the children to interact by themselves. The mother of two indicated that her parents greatly influenced her choice of parenting style. They had also used the same parenting approach on her. They had even set academic expectations for her and supported her in achieving the goals. Therefore, if she had another opportunity, she would always use the authoritative style. However, she noted that she would allow her children more independence to discover their strengths. The second parent indicated that she mixed authoritarian and authoritative styles. According to her, some things were not negotiable such as playing in the rain or running down the road. She further stated that there were clear rules that any child who was found running down the road would receive a thorough beating to warn them never to repeat the mistake. In the mother’s view, doing so instilled fear in the children. They knew the actions that would attract punishment and always avoided them.
The parent also noted that she always rewarded good behavior. For instance, she had a