Raising a child is without a doubt one of the most difficult jobs that a person can be responsible for. It is also the most important task for a society to engage in. Parents affect children s emotional, social, and intellectual development in several ways. One way is by teaching their children how to behave in society through direct instruction and by rewarding them for positive social behaviors such as sharing, looking at other s view points, and being polite. Parents model appropriate attitudes and behaviors.
Children learn most about how to behave in social situations by observing adults whom they admire.
Parents also influence children s development by choosing their neighborhoods, schools and playmates. Parenting and African Americans Parenting for African American women requires unique considerations. African American women have come under unfounded hostile criticism in recent years from mainstream America as being overly punishing, as raising children in disorganized homes, and as being inept as single parents. Such fault finding, however, is unsupported. The problem in studying Black families is that the ideas of child rearing are based on White standards of child rearing, which are based on different cultural standards.