Parenting functions also can be, and too often are, pieced together around children in foster homes and institutions without providing those children with parents. In contrast parenthood is a way of life, a career. It connotes one role in life and recognizes the importance of others, such as companionship and remunerated career. We need to clarify our understanding of parenthood because we live in a time of dramatic and rapid changes. These changes have led to confusion about family and employment roles, about mothering and fathering, about love and sex, and about authority in the home.
Many adults prefer acting like children to caring for children.
In the past parents tyrannized children. Now many children tyrannize their parents. Many adults and youth are fascinated by violence and seek freedom from responsibility. Because they have been traumatized by their family relationships, many persons experience anxiety in intimate relationships and tend to avoid or disrupt them. Compounding all of this is the tendency of the generous side of our society abetted by commercial interests to turn to child caring institutions, schools, professionals, and volunteers to fill in when parents fail.