How Does Parental Control Affect A Child

Essay, Research Paper

How Does Parental Control Affect a Child?There are many individual needs that teenagers look to receive from their parents as theygrow up. Some kids would prefer to be restricted to what they are allowed to do. This mightinclude rules such as being in by 9p.m. on Friday nights, doing at least three hours ofhomework a night, and maybe no dating till the age of sixteen. Other children who face theserules might not agree with them, but the parent administering the rules might feelsatisfaction knowing these rules will only help the child. However, do these rules help thechild? Could the child rebel, and totally disregard these rules? Or, will the child succumbto the rules, figuring these rules would only help them. Either way, the parents have theauthority of the household. This was an excellent example of how the parents can expresstheir parental control. The importance of parental control is seen through the eyes of theparent. Every parent has their own way of raising their child. They all lay down their ownrules in order to get the child to grow as a mature, well taught person. The rules mightencourage responsibility, working independently, or even learning to grow up on one’s ownwith unlimited freedom. In “The Outsiders”, Jonny’s parents didn’t care what he did. Everytime he arrived home, there was always a fight going on. Jonny’s parents were too busyfighting with each other to worry about him. He was tired of his parents always yelling. This hurt Jonny knowing they didn’t care about him. He often wished he had someone likeDarry as a parent. Darry was young, but he had the right ideas of parenting. He always madePony do his home work to keep him on track for the future. Even though he enforced his rulesthrough yelling or through a friendly push, Darry always seemed to get his point across toPonyboy. At least Darry would care if Jonny got into trouble. Bob’s parents on the other

hand, did care about his well-being. Bob’s parents cared about him, they just didn’t reactto punish Bob when he was in trouble. He would come home drunk, and his parents would blamethemselves for what he had done. They would even question their own parental skills, asking”What did we do wrong?”. Bob knew his parents blamed themselves, and he didn’t like that. Hejust wished his parents would learn to blame him for once. He was a child withoutpunishment. After a while, it took it’s toll. Bob began to look for trouble by drinking andpicking fights with the greasers. It would only worsen the problem when his parents wouldcontinue to fault themselves. By that time it was too late, and Bob ended up dead. Bob diedas a boy who never received a smack, was never yelled at, and was never the victim of harshrules laid down by his parents. All parents control their child in different ways, and thatwas just the way Bob’s parents did things. Is it safe to say that Bob would still be aliveif he was not pampered? Maybe if Bob’s parents would have exercised parental control, thingswould have turned out differently. Bob was looking for his parents to yell at him. He waslooking for his parents to set rules down for him, and take control of his young teenagelife. Maybe a simple curfew would have solved Bob’s troubles. Sadly, those nights ofyelling, and the laying down of rules never came through Bob’s house, simply because hisparents did not exercises the parental control Bob so desperately was looking for. For kidsto stay focused in life, whether it school, sports, or jobs, it is essential for the parentsof each family to lay down some guidelines for their child to follow. The rules will keepthe child out of trouble, and on the right track for the future. Lack of guidelines for thechild to follow, can result in problems similar to what Jonny and Bob encountered in “TheOutsiders”. Parental control does not have to be looked upon as a set of dirty words. Theycan only help.