I think that my parents used the “concerted cultivation strategy” when raising me. I think that this honestly impacted me in a good way. I was never taught to disrespect authority, but I was always taught to question authority because not everyone at the top is right and they don’t always have your best interest in mind. This specifically impacted me in a positive way as in my work place experience as I got older.
There have been many instances where I may have had a bad boss or there was a policy or something enforced that I thoughts was unfair. In most of these cases, although it was really hard, I was able to have the backing to stand up for myself and convey my feelings to the person in charge letting them know my point of view.
As a child I don’t feel that I was punished very often, but I also didn’t give my parents many reasons to have to punish me. My parents never used physical methods such as spanking as punishments as they were aware of the negative implications of physical punishments and it’s lack of effectiveness. When I did get punished it wasn’t until later in life and the consequences would probably be related to my use of technology (having my phone, being able to watch TV, ect.), but through calm means never anger. At times, my childhood was organized around the activities we did, my parents would call these our “busy” days as they would a more strict schedule with less flexibility. This wasn’t the case all of the time though. I think that my parents had a good balance between letting me play on my own and choose what I wanted to do, but also enrolling me in extracurriculars. Most of the extracurriculars that I was enrolled in were of my choosing, but my parents supported them and helped me get to all of them via transportation.
My parents made sure it was clear to be respectful to adults and even themselves, but to not tolerate abuse by any adults. My parents wouldn’t always explain why they controlled different aspects of my life to give young me an understanding of why things were this way. My parents would never control me in outrageous way or use the phrase “because I said so” with no explanation involved. Looking back, I am thankful for being raised in this environment as it taught me to be curious in life and never settle even when other people were holding you back. I would assume that my parents were not raised in this environment, but changed their parenting styles for my siblings and I after seeing the negative implications such as lack of self-confidence and understanding that could come with a more “accomplishment of growth parenting style”.
