Essay Sample on the Video by Jennifer Senior Concerning Parenting

The Video by Jennifer Senior concerning Parenting highlights the importance of Parenting and challenges faced by modern parents as they struggle to balance work and parental care. According to the video, Parenting is currently experiencing many difficulties. The demands of straining with personal, family, and professional roles combined with the changing world and social isolation have resulted in the gradual deterioration of parenting responsibilities. But parents have a responsibility to invest in happiness for their kids since for them, 'happiness is a very high bar', as stated in the Jennifer Senior's TED Talk.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

There are various kinds of children, each requiring a somehow unique type of care. Examples of these types include science minded kid, financially savvy kid, and eco-friendly kid, among other types (Senior, 2014). But parents are supposed to take up responsibilities and guide their children on how to establish trajectories that determine the direction of child development. They should then mediate these trajectories through their influence on a child's experiences. Then, they have to ensure that they modify the speed at which children have experiences that promote development. The mediating trajectories would ensure that a child is pre-armed. He/she would be ready to counter any challenging situations like cultural pressures or stereotypes and able to draw attention to any potential dangers. The child would also be able to interpret any situation after experiencing it.

This parenting responsibility is, therefore, not simple. It is a journey with so many challenges. Raising children nowadays is associated with a lot of anguish and confusion because of the much different commitment that parent is committed. There is always mental dissatisfaction because every parent has divided attention.The rate at which parents interact with children is very low, to the extent that they act like strangers. Parents should always try to be available to attend, encourage, and support children. More so, material assistance is also necessary. But in the process of seeking material assistance through working, the other responsibility whereby they should be close to their kids deteriorates.

Therefore, according to Jennifer Senior, parenting is a big problem currently. With the changing roles of parents, most of them now rely on schools for parenting responsibility. Mothers provide for families in many homes nowadays. There have been many cases whereby family income has dropped drastically as a result of transitioning to parenthood. Newborn mothers usually spend 80 hours per week working at home as the routine changes and become centered on the kid. But the drop or loss of income forces them to abandon most of these responsibilities and return to work, hence, posing another challenge to their family/parenting roles.

Such a situation affects bond development between parents and their children. Balancing between works and spending time with kids is not easy. That is where the parental sensitivity reduces. When children are deprived of parental care in the early stages, it affects their healthy growth. Parent, child attachment should be encouraged because this is the only way that a kid would develop positively. Infants who promote positive working models of themselves and others are those that are securely attached to their parents.

The other problem that parents experience today is the fact that they concentrate on one or two options where children should focus on succeeding in life. Even though the system seems to work to some extent, unfortunately, school is not enough. Apart from academics, children require co-curricular activities to remain healthy. Sometimes these career paths may not work because situations and opportunities are limited. Therefore, parents should prepare children for any possible kind of future (Senior, 2014). They should be ready to nurse them well, ensure they are well-schooled, and ensure they fully exploit their talents and abilities.

However, the care that children require is inadequate because most women, unlike before, are in the workforce. But they should make sure that the balance work and Parenting. They should invest heavily to ensure that kids are happy all the time. In fact, according to Jennifer Senior, happiness is paramount for every child. Jennifer senior argues that pleasure and self-confidence are wonderful.

Either way, the parents have no alternative but try the best to balance work and parental care. Shaping the character as well as the physical and psychological development of a child is very important. A child always requires to be modeled to acquire good behaviors, have a healthy diet, social competence as well as spiritual growth. Parent is the best custodian of these trajectories in a child. Therefore, despite the many challenges, it would be best for any parent to make sure that the kid develops well in the most conducive environment ever. This way, the child would become a self-reliant and responsible citizen in the future.

Reference

Senior, J. (2014). For parents, happiness is a very high bar. Retrieved 8 October 2019, from https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_senior_for_parents_happiness_is_a_very_high_bar#t-408922