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Its 9am on Saturday morning in Manhattan New York, and 8-year-old Lucy wakes up to
her nanny telling her that breakfast is ready. She practically jumps out of bed, excited to show
her mother her brand new dress. She puts on her dress and walks downstairs hoping to see her
mother sitting at the dining room table waiting to greet her. When she gets to the table she finds
her mother missing and a strong feeling of realization comes over her, her mother forgot to tell
her once again that she was going out of town for work. Who knows how long this time will be,
she thinks to herself, hopefully she doesnt forget that its my birthday. Its also Saturday
morning in the South Bronx, and Mikey is just waking up. Hes 12 years old and didnt realize
that he slept through his alarm, so he rushes out of bed and goes to check on his baby sister
Madison who is still fast asleep. He goes to the kitchen and pours a glass of milk and puts it in
the microwave for 60 seconds, he walks back to her room to wake her up and feed her so that
they can get up and start their day. Mikey realizes that today marks one year since hes seen his
parents and wonders what their doing right now.
My topic proposal for this assignment is essentially Parenting Styles, and what are some
factors that can affect it such as wealth or neglect or both. In my introduction examples, it shows
different ends of the social class spectrum, one being a wealthy family, and one being poor.
Wealthy parents play a huge part in my concentrated figured world because it is set on the Upper
East Side of Manhattan in New York, and that particular area is filled with wealthy families and
wealthy lifestyles. Neglect also plays a part in the figured world of Gossip Girl because though
these characters are still growing and learning, it seems that most of them are doing so without
their parents around to help. My position on this topic is that the wealth aspect does affect
parenting styles in the way that wealthy parents expect more from their children and want them
to be taught in the most prestigious schools even starting from pre-school. However, neglect has
a much deeper affect on children because they are not being properly taken care of, and the
children may show signs of psychological problems later on in their lives which includes wealthy
families as well as poor.
I dont have any personal connections to this particular topic proposal, however, the
characters in my figured world do which is one of the reasons why I chose this topic. It isnt an
obvious problem within the community, it is an underlying one which may help the reader
connect with the topic or figured world. With this paper, I plan on digging deeper to the root of
child neglect and parenting styles and how wealth really affects the way parents raise their
children, and the roles that parenting styles plays in how their children end up.
Literature Review:
In the memoir Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin compares everyday life
parenting to the parenting of Upper East Side children. Whether the mothers are actresses living
in Manhattan NY, or middle class moms working an office job, all of these women have one
thing in common, and its that they are all mothers. However, one thing that may set the higher
class mothers from the middle or lower class mothers, especially on the Upper East Side, is a
term called intensive mothering which Martin describes as a gendered model that [compels]
mothers to expend a tremendous amount of time, energy and money in raising their children.
This would include starting their child off in the best private pre-school, preparing their child for
ivy league colleges and to be successful in the upper class world. (Tania Lombrozo 2015)
Another source that I used that connects to this particular source would be the primary source of
my observation notes, both discuss the upper class, wealthier family aspect of parenting styles.
Parental absence is a huge problem in this particular figured world, leaving the younger
characters to fend for themselves even while still in high school. A lot of the parents are only
seen a few times throughout the entire series; a few others ditch their children to go do things for
their own benefit or success such as Bart Bass, Chuck Bass father who pretends to be dead for
so long. Another example of an absent parent would be Blair Waldofs mother, she is a fashion
designer and is rarely ever home, leaving Blair to only have herself and her maid Dorota. (Gossip
Girl 2007) Wealthy parents have a habit especially of letting work overtake their lives, and this
figured world shows prime examples of this.
An example of the parenting styles of wealthy families is also given in the source I used
involving a 16-year-old boy in Fort Worth Texas. Ethan Couch was only given probation for
getting behind the wheel of his truck after being intoxicated past 3 times the legal limit, and
killing 4 pedestrians while doing so. He was being prosecuted for 20 years of jail time, however
his defense attorney argued with the prosecution that Ethan was too rich and privileged to know
right from wrong, and has never been punished before. The judge sentenced him to 10 years on
probation, because the boy had Afluenza, Eric Boyles, the father and Husband of 2 of the
murder victims states Ultimately today, I felt that money did prevail. (RT America 2013)
Another example that connects to this one would be an article on how wealth simply isnt good
for children. The specific piece of the book Psychotherapies with Children and Adolescents,
describes that children are children, no matter how wealthy they are or their families are.
However, the dynamics of being raised in a wealthy family may directly influence psychological
distress and that child may need psychological help. Wealth is simply not good for children,
stresses Pittman, mainly because of their image of themselves, and of others, as well as their
relationships with others. Overall, Grinker states that children of wealthy parents are a grossly
neglected minority group (Edited by John D. OBrien, Daniel J. Pilowsky, Owen W. Lewis
1992), which leaves them feeling unloved and undervalued by their parents.
A different aspect of parenting styles Im focusing on for this assignment is how
parenting affects academic achievement and how neglect and/or wealth comes into play. One
group of low income and one group of high income sixth graders were sampled. Each group of
children were tested to see the difference between isolation from parents, as well as parents
view on academic achievement, and surprisingly, the results showed that affluent children
perceive their parents just as emotionally and physically unavailable as the non-affluent children.
Closeness to parents is a huge benefit to all children, and studies show that children with
commonly absent parents, tend to do poorly in school, which leads to parents presence has a
connection to academic achievement. (Suniya S. Luthar, Shawn J. Latendresse 2005) Another
source that connects academic achievement to parental involvement is: This article discusses the
relationship of school outcomes of the adolescents from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic
backgrounds. The primary factor of adolescent academic achievement is parental involvement,
studies show that the more the parents are involved in their childs life, the better the school
outcomes will be. Jacques Rousseau believed that children were born innately good and that it
was up to the parents, as well as society to uphold and teach the children values as they grow
older. (Christopher Spera 2005)
America 2013) I dont believe that being wealthy is an excuse to not know the right thing to do.
Anyone with a moral capacity would know that driving under the influence is wrong and not to
mention dangerous. In this case, along with Im sure many other cases, money won over justice.
Mothers on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and all other mothers all have one thing in
common, and its simply that, they are mothers. The wealthy mommies living on the Upper East
Side practice Intensive Mothering, which includes spending a tremendous amount of time,
energy, and of course money into raising their children. This parenting style ensures that their
children will have a successful future. (Tonia Lombrozo 2015) I dont see anything wrong with
putting all of those things into raising your children, however time is a constraint in this day and
age, and it makes is harder for the lower and middle class families to put forth so much of it.
While wealth does play a role in parenting styles, so does neglect. Studies show that children
who are neglected by their parents, whether its from their jobs or they simply dont put their
children above themselves, tend to have psychological problems when they become adults or
maybe even before hand.
All in all, wealth and neglect do play huge roles in parenting styles, and my sources show
that in different aspects. The way families choose to parent, will depict how their children turn
out as they get older. Its important to take in everything your children are showing you even if
its a small sign that something is wrong, and try to change your ways. No parent is perfect, but
as long as parents try their best to raise their children to the best of their abilities, thats all they
can really do.
Conclusion:
Wealth and Neglect do play a huge part in parenting styles. Children who have parents
that are more involved in their lives tend to do better in school as to children whose parents are
uninvolved. Wealth also plays a part in parenting styles and correlates with what schools their
children attend to and the clothes they wear and their priorities, etc.
Seeing that with these two correlations to parenting styles interact with academic
achievement, I believe that another great area of research could be how not only these affects on
parenting styles but just parenting style in general: How academic achievement is affected by
parenting styles. There already is known facts about how it is affected in my literature review
such as how wealthy mothers practice intensive mothering which requires mothers to put
almost all of their time, energy, and money into raising their children. Which includes getting
them into not only the best pre school, but the best college as well, ensuring that they have a
successful career. (Tonia Lombrozo 2015) Neglect also plays a part in academic achievement,
which in one of my sources states that it has a direct correlation. The more involved a parent is in
their childrens life, the better they tend to do in school. (Christopher Spera 2005)
Parenting styles vary, but the right thing to do by your children stays the same. No matter
your social status, the more involved you are in your childrens life, the more successful not only
your child will be, but you will be as a parent.