The upbringing of children mainly depends on different cultures parents live in. There are no official rules for raising children, but the culture usually imposes parents to treat their children differently. The unequal treatment of daughters and sons can lead to denying their personalities and personal needs.
Trucks or dolls?
Mothers and fathers start making differences among their children since they are very young. They prepare them for their life roles by giving them different toys for playing. Boys usually get soldiers, guns, rifles, cars and trucks, while girls get dolls, dollhouses and kitchen equipment. Even the colour of their clothes is different – girls wear pink, whereas boys wear blue. All of these things prepare them for doing different roles in the future. When they are a little bit older, girls start doing more housework than boys, while boys are encouraged to find jobs, become independent and earn a living earlier than girls.
“Male” and “female” jobs
Society treats girls and boys unequally. When the system of patriarchy is dominant in the society, the attention is more focused on sons. There is even a division into “male and “female” jobs. But nowadays, these differences are less noticed. Women start choosing “male” jobs. They become soldiers or police officers, whereas men work as teachers, nurses, etc.
Education
When education is concerned, in some cultures girls are given the role of being a mother, they are not expected to educate. Their duty is to marry after secondary school and give birth to children. On the other hand, some other cultures encourage girls to educate themselves and develop professionally, so their parents are afraid of them being married at young age and thus degrading themselves to being housewives and mothers only.
Men are stronger, women are sensitive
There is this stereotype that men are the stronger gender, whereas women are sensitive and delicate. Because of that, parents are overprotective of their daughters and the sons are given more freedom. Not all the girls need protection, most of them are strong and confident and want to be independent, so parents should be supportive of their personalities. It’s wrong to have different expectations from boys and girls. Some parents expect girls to be beautiful, and boys to be successful.
Conclusion
All in all, parents should try hard to ignore the stereotypes and start raising children according to their personal needs. The aim of every mother and father is to make their children become good, self-confident people who know how to deal with life problems they face on everyday basis. Parents are there to create a positive atmosphere for the kids’ growth, and treat them all equally, not taking into account their gender and making differences because of that. If they feel happy and content, they will be stimulated to become the best versions of themselves and they will make their parents proud, no matter they are male or female.
