Summary Of Kolbert's 'Spoiled Rotten'

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“Spoiled Rotten” 1. Adolescence is a time when a child develops into the adult. Kolbert discusses how parents influence this time of a child’s life by their beliefs or values. She discusses how parents relate responsibilities to their child during childhood will affect their adolescent and adult years. 2. In the United States, most parents do not delegate many responsibilities to their children at any stage in life. These parents either don’t feel their children are capable of responsibilities or are afraid that their child may miss out on being special or elite, so they do things for them. Parents here seem to be more concerned with getting the approval of their children then being a parent. Kolbert tells about her time in Paris and how in France parents aren’t afraid to say no to their children and mean it. She also states that the parents in France are okay with ignoring their children so that they learn that other people have needs too. The parents in the Matsigenka tribe teach their children how to be useful at an early age of three and as they grow they learn more useful jobs; even the folktales reinforce these values. These jobs and ignoring of …show more content…

At first I did not think that adolescence was and economic construction but the more I think about how our society values possessions. The one article said that a child will add 30% to the inventory of possessions a family owns, that’s a lot of stuff. As a parent I find myself wanting them to be children when I want, and adults when I want them to be. I don’t think adolescence is pretty much whatever adults say, that gives adults too much control over their life and who they might become. Parents can’t make every decision for the adolescent. I agree that culture is primary terrain in how adults exercise “power” over adolescents like in the example of French mothers verse United States mothers. I don’t think that parents are the only thing in culture that affect the choices of adolescents and who they will

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