The Importance Of Child Rearing Practices

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Societies each have different concepts revolving around the idea of the family unit. While some societies encourage a strong independence from their families, other societies advocate for interdependence, relying on each other for many needs. These needs can extend to child rearing practices, as instilling these family values begin at a very young age. In quite a few societies that encourage interdependence, the family unit is very close knit, stretching into extended family members as well. Due to the close-knit family dynamics, a mother has the possibility of raising multiple children at the same time. Because of this, juvenile offspring often assist the mother in the child rearing process. Juveniles then have to allocate their time differently than they would if they did not have to care for other children. This is a style of alloparenting, a process in which other people assist the mother with the child rearing process and is much more common in lower social classes. This is because of the idea of the family living in the same area or house with extended family. If children are raised amongst a large family with many siblings and other children near their age, they will eventually need to be able to help the primary caretaker (Kramer 2005). While convenient, …show more content…

However, this creates a trade of between learning opportunities and helping to raise a child. This can put children at a developmental disadvantage later in life, as they spent more time raising young children then learning how to interact with other humans. This trade off can be detrimental to the child’s ability to make a better life for them, as they will have to allocate their time less efficiently. Juvenile help can be beneficial for mothers and younger children, but is less beneficial to the

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