Communication

7. Understanding the legal and institutional contexts

7.1. Changing roles to better understand rights and duties

 

ACTIVITY40 minutes/80 minutes including activity with grandparents

Should I do the activity alone?

Try to do the activity together with your child.

If you are in a two-parent family, involve your partner too.

You might also like to involve grandparents.

 

After completing the activity…

I/we should be able to:

  • Identify typical parenting behaviours, which are not respectful to children's rights and lead to family conflicts.
  • Be aware of the possible parents' rights and responsibilities associated with parenting behaviours that aren’t respectful of children's rights and the reasons for that.
  • Identify my/our own parenting behaviours which are not respectful of children's rights and some alternatives to change them.
  • Encourage my/our children to cooperate and respect each other’s rights to prevent conflicts in the family.
  • (If grandparents are involved) Be aware of how the roles in the family changed with time and social evolution. Identify their advantages and disadvantages and the possible ways to face the latter

Before I start, what will I need to do this activity?       

Sheets of papers, pencils, computer and connection to the Internet.


What do I have to do?

To perform this activity you are invited to watch the video Parenting-Changing roles (2.10 minutes). 

In this video you will find children of different ages playing typical parenting roles associated with family conflicts.

After watching the video, you should:  

1.       Identify those parenting behaviours you consider non-respectful of children's rights and which lead to conflicts.

2.       Comment on the possible reasons parents have for behaving that way with their children (for example: fear their children get into risk, lack of time, etc.).

3.      Identify your own parenting behaviours similar to that shown in the video and some ideas to change them if you wish to do so. 

4.      If grandparents are involved, discuss with them:

  • how the parents' and the children's roles changed in the family in the past 30 years (for example), or when the grandparents were children themselves,
  • which are the main differences, its advantages and disadvantages
  • how to cope with the disadvantages.
  • try to figure out why /how these changes happened (for example, because of social evolution as mothers entered the job market, etc.)

In the link you will find an example of a writing template.

What to do next?

We will help each other if we share some key ideas to the forum.

  • Any insight you learned from? Was it helpful?
  • Are you feeling especially happy or worried about something related?
  • Will you apply it in your daily routine?
  • ...?