Upbringing of children

1.- Each person's knowledge of how to bring up a child usually comes from their surroundings and their own upbringing. Children are going through their adolescence before their final adult characters are beginning to take shape.

2.- Some parents think it is good for children to be allowed to run wild without control or supervision. They say that this enables children's personalities to develop naturally and that they will learn to be responsible by the mistakes they make. However, this might lead to juvenile delinquency, with the children ending up in the courts, or it might simply make children self-centered, without any consideration for others.

3.- Other parents believe in being strict, but taken to extremes this can produce a too authoritarian atmosphere in the home, with the children being dominated and ruled by their parents. Parents can also be very possessive and try to keep their children dependent on them. These last two attitudes can encourage rebelliousness against parents, school, or, conversely, suppress a child's natural sense of adventure and curiosity.

4.- Discipline is important when bringing up a child. Through discipline a child learns that some kinds of behaviour are acceptable and others are not.

II. The generation gap.

1.- The generation gap is differences between people of a younger generation and their elders, especially between a child and his or her parent's generation. Old people are always saying that the young are not what they were. The same comment is made from generation to generation and is always true.

2.- These days, grown-ups describe children as difficult, rude, wild and irresponsible. The new generation has a very different view of the importance of work and money. The immediate post-war generation saw the creation of wealth as the most important thing in life, while today young people have other concerns and priorities. They have learned to take economic prosperity for granted and don't feel the need to be workaholics.

3.- Some teens say: They (the older generation) think differently; they have staid ideas and won't listen to new ones. Young people don't get listened to by either parents or teachers. Some older people think the young are getting very lazy.