Parenting in 2012

How should adults in 2012 "parent" thier children? Lend your opinion on how this should be done. Think about the appraoch your parents/guardians have taken in raising you. Consider the parenting you've seen of others in your peer group (how your extended family parents your cousins, or how your friends parents deal with your friends), and finally, think about the parent you might want to be someday. How would you go about raising your children? What standandards would you hold them to (if any), what rules would you impose (if any)?

I would consider my mom and dad good at being parents. They had three kids and raised each of us similarly. I have two sisters, one is older and one is younger. I am the middle child and with the way my parents are it has its ups and downs. My mom and dad play different roles in their parenting which i feel has been a good thing in my life. If both parents play the same role than i feel the kid will be lost. My dad has always been the strict one in our house and my mom would still have rules for us to follow but if my dad made us upset my mom would be the person to go to feel better. My dad isn't always strict though. He picks and chooses the right things to be strict about and the right things to be more lenient about. I can tell the only reason my dad is strict is because he wants to do his best to mold us all into responsible young adults. I know this because at a certain age in each of our lives he starts to be more easy going and allows us to make a lot more of our own decisions. My dad doesn't only make rules for us but he also loves to teach. Any chance he can get to teach us something new he will no matter what it is. While school is making me book smart, my dad makes me life smart and i give any kind of intelligence that i have in that area to him. My mom on the other hand comes off as the more loving one. She always worries about us which is a good think because that her way of trying to protect us in every possible way. Although i believe my parents are great parents i still believe they have flaws too. When i become a parent someday i cam going to strive to use the knowledge iv learned from them about parenting and apply it to my kids. I will use their good parenting strategies and improve there flaws. One thing that i have always promised myself to do when i become a parent is not forget what it is like to be a kid. Because at times im going to need to put myself in their shoes and in a way look at myself from their perspective. I am going to obviously have rules and consequences if they break them, but i want to be able to be friends with my kid along with being a parent. I think this because my dad and i are very good friends and i think this has helped me through my life. I believe its healthy for a kid to be as open as possible with their parents. I also feel that i will have more of an impact on his/her life if i am on a friendly level with them. They will listen to me more and take into consideration what i am say a little more.

Race/Relations in America Today

To help understand race-relations in America today, it's important to look back on our past/history. We've been doing that with our reading of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's story of the South of the 30's, along with our viewing the PBS documentary, Freedom Riders, that dealt with the 60's. But this all took place decades ago. How would you sum up race-relations in America today, and more specifically, what is your own personal experience with it? What do you see are some of the more important issues, ideas, controversies at the heart of race-relations in America today?

America has evolved a lot from the past. Now a days if someone makes a racist comment or does something racist than there are consequences. There are occasional hate crimes that go on, but no where near to as many as there used to be. I think this is because kids these days, especially in america and raised to not hate and grow u in a very diverse society. This changes them and creates a person that accepts different races. Kids are also put into schools and play sports that are diverse and allow any race to play. I have many personal experiences with race/relations today. Everyday when I walk into school there are people of all races to the left and right of me. At this point there could be a white, mexican, black, or puerto rican person next to me and I would just look at them as a person just like everyone else and not what race they are. One of the big ways that race/relation change is shown in America today is simply by the president of the United State. Obama is of african american decent and he is the leader of our country. In America many years ago this would never happen. A way that the country is helping kids to become more used to diversity is education. Through education the kids and young adults, and even adults are learning about different ethnicities, religions, and races and the backgrounds of each. This is getting everyone more familiar with being around people that may be different from them. I have been on many sports teams throughout my life so far and almost every single one iv been on there has been atleast two races of kids on them. So this shows that not only school but through activities out of school people all over America are becoming more familiar with diversity and this is helping our country run more smooth with less hate due to race than in the past.