In the article titled Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families, Annette Lareau examines the differences in childrearing strategies and concludes that class differences amongst families are much more important than racial differences. Lareau came to this conclusion through ethnographic research collected in three different phases. Phase one involved observing two third-grade classrooms, phase two was observing two schools in a metropolitan area: one in a suburban area and one with students of working-class parents, and phase three involved family observations of twelve children. Lareau’s observations allowed her to come to the conclusion that class position influences critical aspects of family…show more content… Before reading this article, I would have assumed that all parents across all classes raise their children to stand up for what they believe in even if that means negotiating/challenging/questioning authority. I was surprised to read that this tends to only be true for children of middle-class parents, not usually children of working-class parents. Reflecting back on my own upbringing, I would say I received the “Concerted Cultivation” parenting style. During my childhood, my father worked and my mother was a stay at home mom. I was taught to speak up for myself even if that meant negotiating with authority. I experienced many of the elements of typical middle-class childrearing including my mother organizing my daily life with lots of leisure activities. I would go from dance class to lacrosse to playdates to clubs at my school. All of these activities were homogenous in age groupings, just like the activities done by the middle-class children described in the…show more content… First of all, I wonder what type of childrearing approaches are used by parents with extreme wealth and what the consequences of this approach might be? I would almost think that children with parents of extreme wealth would have similar upbringing experiences to children on working-class parents. Stereotypically, children of parents with extreme wealth are raised by a nanny and their parents are too busy with organizing their own busy lives to organize leisure activities for their children. Since the nanny raising the child is also usually cleaning and working around the house I would bet that the nanny would use an “Accomplishment of Natural Growth” method and the child would have similar consequences to that of a child of working-class parents. Another question I have is what if a child who was raised with one parenting approach grew up and entered into a different social class than their parents, would they utilize the same parenting approach they were raised with? I think that said child would grow up and raise their own children using a combination of the two approaches. For example, let’s say that Ben was a child of working-class parents. He was raised using all the typical elements of the “Accomplishment of Natural Growth” childrearing approach. Ben then grew up and through upward mobility was able to enter into the upper middleclass. I think that if Ben had a child, he would raise that child using most of the elements of
