Third World Countries and Parenting: A Pandemic Itself?
What is the probability of getting a positive response if a random millennial from a third-world country is asked whether he is satisfied with his parents' behavior or not? Now, if the answer is negative, what is the probability of that millennial being mentally sound, happy, and satisfied regardless of his/her consequences? While both questions are contrasting and it might look like the answers are apparent, they are not. Because parenting is menacing, third-world parents have not been doing an excellent job in this regard. However, in a place where most of the population lives without a standard wage and still manages to 'not' regard such a manner as a pandemic in the economy, how can something as trivial as bad parenting turn into a pandemic? Let us look into it.
What is bad parenting?
Bad parenting is, in simple terms, when parents fail to fulfill their children's responsibilities and adopt certain practices that are more harmful than beneficial. For a growing child, bad parenting can be detrimental to his or her future and can shape life in a very unpleasant manner. The main reasons for bad parenting are usually parents' instability, economic struggles, lack of proper parenting knowledge, apathy, and all that. While most acts of bad parenting are not intentional, that does not reduce the negative impact they have on a child.
How does bad parenting affect a child?
Since parenting is the core parameter in determining how a child will shape up in the future, the effects of bad parenting are long-lasting and sometimes irrevocable. The optimal age range when the brain undergoes significant growth is 0–5 years. Every activity experienced during this period affects a child either positively or negatively, based on the circumstances. If not handled with care, children might develop a feeling of resentment towards their parents. A bad parent-child relationship is never healthy and affects both in the long run. In this case, when parents show reluctant behavior and are not understanding enough, children do not find a haven to take shelter under. They gradually fall prey to malpractices that harm them in different ways.
Most importantly, their mental health takes a turn for the worse. How good of a person will a child grow up to be if he/she becomes the victim of the discussed aspect of bad parenting? This is the first question in this discussion with an obvious answer.
Prominent parenting approach(es)
In most third-world countries, their social construct is bound by a specific set of cultural norms, forming a conservative mindset. On the other hand, the current generation of eccentric millennials is open to ideas that follow a progressive agenda. As a result, the third world is now in the middle of experiencing two different approaches in terms of parenting. The older generation is inclined more toward an authoritarian approach, which is a pre-fixated, strict, and sometimes unfair parenting method. In such an approach, parents resort to yelling, pressurizing, and gaslighting their children while maintaining a toxic, perfect image. It has only been a decade since third-world countries were exposed to progressive ideas, which is why the authoritarian approach to parenting was never previously questioned.
On the other hand, a minority of the elderly and most open-minded millennial parents take a traditional approach, which is a firm yet fair and consistent approach to parenting. Here, children are neither ignored nor are they wholly ensnared in any preconceived notion. Instead, parents try to learn about proper parenting, the psychological effect of their actions on children, and how to maintain a balance between their own opinions and their offspring's.
Repercussions of bad parenting
Because of the two major contrasting parenting approaches discussed, the recent generation of third-world countries is a mixed breed of progress and conservation. While variety is healthy and should always be promoted, a favorable outcome never came in this case. For example, according to the constitution, Bangladesh is a secular nation with a Muslim majority. Nevertheless, the current situation in Bangladesh is far from secular. Even during this Durga Puja, a major religious festival of the Hindus, several temples were vandalized by aggressive local Muslims in different cities over petty issues that can easily be disregarded with common sense. Incidents like these have frequently happened in third-world countries, where acceptance is still taboo and unnecessary violence is always the answer.
While morality is subjective and a group should never be blamed for an individual's actions, does it not occur to us that people who resort to such methods had a bad upbringing? What if the aggressors were adequately taught the core principles of their religion by their parents instead of simply injecting an idea of self-gloating? No religion supports violence, yet the followers of every religion resort to violence once in a while. This is because the teachings are never adequately conveyed to them.
An authoritarian approach usually results in the upbringing of people with such an unjust mindset. Meanwhile, children with parents who follow a traditional approach are usually more understanding and accepting. The problem arises when a generation becomes a mixed breed. Moreover, this is the exact scenario for most third-world countries.
Bad parenting// pandemic (?)
The clash of ideas being discussed is not any form of cultural diversification but a somewhat toxic collaboration of outdated notions and strong empathy. When we consider a continent culturally diverse, we automatically assume it is accepting of its diversity. However, as we can see, it is not. Acceptance is the primary one. Culture is a secondary issue. Forget culture and most brown parents are terrified when their children tend to incline toward a profession that is not being an engineer or doctor.
Moreover, in some third-world countries, even the choice of educational institutions remains above the reach of the children because parents still live in a utopia where specific institutions are glorified and the rest are not. Their social hierarchy depends on how refined they are in disciplining their children on the path of getting into their specific choice of institution. This mentality extends to and is not limited to: career, marriage, settlement, family planning, and so on. Frustration and dissatisfaction run through the veins of this generation, and on top of that, when they try to break this cycle of unfair authority and spread acceptance, they find their peers to be unaccepting as well. They face the harsh reality: the only barrier(s) they have to overcome to build a better society is not just their previous generation but their own as well. Furthermore, the only possible outcome is despair when abandonment is found in a place where the backing is expected. All these complications are only because of some preconceived notions of parenting.
If a virus the size of an atom can create havoc in the whole world and cause a pandemic, what can happen to a generation consumed by frustration, who are neither backed by their parents nor by themselves? The question remains.
