A video of a stand-up trailer that had gone viral described the set-up that “parenting only for the rich” and “parenting is easy only for the rich”. Although the video has a quite good punchline, it makes me laugh because it is a bit nostalgic. But for me, easy parenting does not only belong to rich people. It’s just so easy, it can be done by all parents from various backgrounds.
There are some things I don’t agree with the komika, Guzman Sige. First, saying “parenting is only for the rich” is like saying “diet is only for people who want to lose weight”.
Uh, body mass, to be precise.
Parenting Only for the Rich? The Analogy
Diet is not limited to reducing the scale or forming body muscles. Indeed, dictionary has so far given many meaning to the diet, namely special food rules for health and so on.
In the first place, the diet by the Oxford dictionary is interpreted as a type of food that is commonly eaten by a person, an animal, or a community. Even if looked at further, the word diet is etymologically derived from the Greek, diaita, which means the life path; lifestyle.
That is, regardless of the desire to shrink the stomach circumference or simply survive, one always follows a diet. Do you eat vegetables and fruit every day? Diet. Every night you eat instant noodles with eggs? Diet too. Ideal or not, the diet has become a habit.
So that’s how it sounds to me when someone says “parenting is only for the rich”. Parenting, again according to the Oxford dictionary, is the activity of raising a child as a parent. This is aligned with its equivalent in United States, parenting, which means the process, way, and act of parenting.
The Good and The Bad
Thus, as a de facto or de jure parent, during child-raising activities, that is parenting. The incident of the mother who solved the brothers who quarreled by being given a slow understanding who was also crowded in the timeline? Parenting. Sticking up for a brat? Parenting. The figure of the father who threatened to sell his son to stop saying rude things? Parenting, too.
Parenting may begin to experience symptoms of narrowing of meaning. Perhaps in some people’s heads, parenting is limited to “a good and correct parenting style” and is considered different from the word parenting.
But it is not. Ideal or incarnate traumatic seedlings, it’s all parenting.
Second, about whether parenting is easy. If you look at the overall context of the video and the majority of the replies in the thread, the “ideal parenting model” is called easy for “rich people” because of a lot of free time and emotions that don’t run out first at work. That’s more or less what I got.
Indeed, it does not dismiss that adequate people will have all the better resources so that they are more exposed to access to parenting style information that does not have the potential to be the story material of the child to the psychologist for the next twenty years. But for me, easy parenting is not only for the rich but also for every person who plays a role as a parent. What, how come?
Is it Easy?
Easy is how, anyway? For me, it’s easy when something is worked on that doesn’t require a lot of time, energy, and mind. Almost similar to the meaning in Oxford Dictionary. So easy parenting is parenting that has been done daily by parents from any economic group. From the circles with any hustle and bustle.
I have a real story about how abundant leisure doesn’t immediately make a child the center of a parent’s mind.
An acquaintance of mine had a mother who, when she was a child, was a housewife. Theoretically, even though her father just came home late enough, her mother 24/7 hours could concentrate on growing my acquaintance, couldn’t it? Not really. My acquaintance often loses to the kitchen and home affairs, until he loses to Play Station games. Even he had to learn to read and count himself.
Well, maybe one of the stories of my acquaintances is a sample that’s not representative of the population, let alone happened a couple of fifteen to twenty years ago. Of course, there is no perfect parenting in this world, but around that year the family had a personal Play Station signaling it was quite rich, right? That’s why, for me, it remains: Parenting is easy, it applies to everyone who plays a role as a parent, regardless of their economic status.
Let’s Compare
Now try to compare: How much easier is it to systematically guide a child through homework, or to let and ask him or her to study on their own? The first option has the potential to make new parents stressed if the child does not understand the material that is still simple, while the second option makes parents still able to work or do various hobbies.
Which is easier: Thinking or figuring out what best to do if a child cries in public, or places blame on a table or other inanimate object? If the goal is to get the crying done quickly, then the second one, please. Even faster, just hit his mouth while being threatened with not eating his favorite food anymore.
Which is easier: Giving the child an understanding of why he or she should not do certain wrong actions – at the risk of draining energy, or; keeping it quiet for a few hours to days until the child apologizes first– in the hope of reflecting on and understanding his or her mistakes? Yes, lastly, this modern way is better known as the silent treatment.
The Conclusion
Easy parenting can be done by parents with any background, right? Easy parenting is cheap, it does not require parents to allocate time simply to learn about good parenting. Time is money!
But, good parenting, that’s a different story. And some of the things I mentioned, obviously don’t make any kind of good sense. Of course, we can’t copy that. Don’t even think about it.
I don’t agree that the word parenting is only suitable for rich people. I know it’s jokes, but, it feels like it needs to be straightened out.
The truth is, perhaps, good parenting is usually done by the rich. However, if we still believe in it now, it is a bit quite wrong. We’ve been exposed to information, so whatever our economic circumstances, we shouldn’t give up on being good parents.
Anyway, do we want to pass on bad traditions to our children later?
