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Vies de Famille magazine May 2006
BEING A PARENT TODAY. WHAT HAS
CHANGED?
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: In May 2006,
Vies de Famille magazine published a very long article about the
challenges parents had to face today. I selected 2 articles.
FIRST ARTICLE: WHAT HAS CHANGED?
By Gisèle Ginsberg and Laurence Seugé-Bernabeu
No Parents haven't resigned!
Parents still behave as parents. However, the social and family
models have very quickly evolved during the last 60 years," parents
don't know where to turn." This statement by Daniel Coum, a
psychologist and head of a service which welcomes and listens to
parents in Brest, sums up the situation: parents are competent, but
in a world where bearings keep changing, they must reinvent new ways
of living.
Of course, being parents consists
of, as it was yesterday, helping your child to become independent.
To give him the means to build his own happiness. To give him enough
confidence to become independent so that he can build his own life
and be part of tomorrow's world. " But, the fact women have new
rights, can work and use contraception have made all the traditional
family models explode." explains Daniel Coum. As a man is no longer
the symbol of authority and as children's rights have become
important, parents cannot rely on well known models anymore. A brand
new territory is then theirs to conquer, a wonderful territory to
explore but also a worrying one. " All of a sudden parents were
confronted to the anguishing fact they had to make decisions
themselves, and had to cope with the loneliness of someone who has
to make his own way."(...)
SECOND ARTICLE: IT'S BECAUSE
PARENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE THAT THEY ASK FOR SUPPORT.
By Jacqueline Costa-Lacoste
Parents go through failures and
joys they must make something of. Therefore, the question is: how
can our educational mistakes become a way of making progress? The
multiplication of places where parents are given support corresponds
to parents' new needs: the will to understand and find answers to
urgent problems, not to remain isolated ( whether they're paralysed
by hesitation or stuck in their own comfort ) and a will to know
more educational approaches. We don't raise a child alone. Parents
are becoming more and more aware of that: parents as well as
schools, special needs teachers, psychologists, social workers (
moderators in social services, volunteers, etc...)give the child the
space he needs in order to grow up and find his dignity.
This parents and professionals'
mobilization which aim is to prevent this feeling of responsibily
and emergency from becoming guilt is recent. It's justified by a
changing environment where families are unstable ( divorces, single
parents, new families ), where material conditions are uncertain,
where youngsters' risky behavior is worrying, where children's
professional future is no longer guaranteed by school. In this
critical context, no wonder parents try to invent new bearings along
with professionals who are there to help.
Parents can find more information
on:
www.ecoledesparents.org
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