Week 11

 Week 11

This week's topic made me think about what I was used to thinking about. Parenting is one of the things that I have been thinking about since when I was young. Personally, parenting in South Korea and the United States are different. When I grew up, I got rebuked by my parents a lot whenever I did something wrong. However, I saw different ways of parenting in America. When I was a missionary, I thought the parents were so nice to their kids. I am not saying that my parents weren't. However, American parents were just talking to them in a very nice way other than rebuking.  I decided that I am going to be like them to my kids than just be mad at them. My parents' parenting worked really well for my siblings. We didn't really get into trouble. In that part, I admire my parents a lot as well as myself. 

Also, one of my best friends has two kids. She is really nice to them. She corrects them whenever they did something bad or wrong, but she complements them whenever they did something right and good. Complement is one of the great ways of parenting to me. In the Korean phrase, it says, "Complement makes the whale dance." Basically, this means that complement has so much power for humans. It can change their attitude. They might look forward to doing good because of the complement that they heard.

Another thing, I found was from the reading assignment. I read that a father asks his child to do something other than commanding him or her. This is an important part of parenting. When I was young, whenever my parents commanded me to do something, I was so mad. I wanted to resist them. If. they requested me to do that, I might have desired to do those things for them. I know they can make me do those stuff, but if it was in a kind way, I wouldn't feel stressed. At some point in my youth, I didn't like my parents because I thought they are planning my life. Now I understand why they would have done like that. I really didn't want to be a father like my dad. 

Something I recognized was that I was too young to know how much they cared about me. It is also something that parents would know about. Kids are immature. They don't really understand that why parents are not allowing them to do everything. As adults, it is our role to understand that kids couldn't really understand adults. Since I recognized this, I have much more mercy on kids in general. I am not married, so I don't have a kid. However, I should start to set how I am going to do the parenting for my children. It could help me a lot in the future.

When I become a father, one thing that I really want my kids to have is courage. I want my kids to know that everything is possible. I want them to try many different things to have the experiences. In order to do that, I have the ability to support my kids. It means that I have to be prepared to become a dad. I have seen many married couples prepare themselves after they are married which is not bad. However, if I am prepared before having children, the quality of parenting will increase. I have to learn how to prepare.

Parenting is a crucial part of family happiness. What I heard is that children are everything for parents. Because of them, parents could be sad or feel joy. I try my best to be a good son to my parents, a good husband, and a good father.

Hyeon Jang

2021.11.27.Satur