A good parent

Un bon parent

cares both for the physical and psychological wellbeing
of his children.
looks after you
wants the best for their child.
who calls, checks-up on you, disciplines you
who cares about how their children feel.
who cares about you and loves you unconditionally.

who cares about your well being.
who encourages his/her child to do his/her best in
everything.
who gives space to grow up
who is a good listener and discipliner.
who is loving and caring., who is involved in their
child's life.
who judges you discretely, who knows how to direct
you and when and how to support you
who knows his children well
who lets you make your own mistakes while encouraging
you to explore all possibilities.
who loves you no matter what
who makes sacrifices, not too indulgent
who puts marshmallows in your hot cocoa.
who spends quality time with his/her children, who
makes an effort to teach his/her children based on his/her experiences

who supports their child's interests
who teaches her/his children to be good people: treat
others with respect, etcetera. Furthermore, a good parent does this
by example.
who teaches with example, who is inconditional to
the children
who teaches, punishes when needed, lets you alone
when you no longer need so many rules
who treats his/her child(ren) with respects.
who trusts and loves you and looks after you.
who understands his children and teaches them respect.

aide; éduque
aime
de rare, de bien
éduque, soutient
partage détresse et joie.
qui aide son enfant à atteindre ses objectifs

qui connait ses responsabilités
qui doit comprendre et aimer son enfant quoiqu'il
arrive.
qui enseigne à ses enfants à devenir
responsable
qui est à l'écoute de ses enfants
qui est une référence
qui fait confiance
qui fait de son mieux, étant donné que
ses enfants trouveront toujours quelque chose à lui repprocher.

qui m'aime
qui me comprend et qui m'aide quand j'en ai besoin.

qui respecte vos choix, qui s'intéresse à
vous, qui a de l'amour pour ses enfants
qui sait éduquer
qui soutient l'enfant dans toutes ses actions.
qui vous accompagne tout au long de la vie
qui vous aide et vous protège même contre
votre gré
qui vous aime
responsable
s'occupe régulièrement de ses enfants

sait multiplier les rôles tout au long de sa
vie
se fait respecter pour bien éduquer
sur qui on peut s'appuyer, qui conseille.

Discussion

I just have one question for the French students about their responses to this category. In most French documents I've seen, the pronoun "on" is used very frequently. In English, this pronoun doesn't really exist, so people use "you" or "I." In these responses, both American and French responses included "you" and "me" in the phrases. I was wondering why the French students used "vous" and "me" so often, when it seems like you would use "on" for most of the phrases.

I seems like the French and the Americans have similar ideas concerning what constitutes a good parent. They should love, care, guide, teach, and discipline. I suppose that parents' roles in their childrens lives are fundamentally universal. They bring up their children into adults who are ready to enter the world to pursue what it is that they would like to do in the world.

Hi Ann Marie! Oui, nous utilisons 'on' très souvent mais surtout à l'oral et dans das siuations peu formelles, entre amis, etc. Lorsqu'on (;-))écrit par exemple une lettre formelle (à un employeur) ou une dissertation, on n'utiliserait pas ou très peu 'on'. On ne l'utiliserait pas non plus lorsque l'on parle à un prof, un employeur ou une autre personne qui nous est supérieure ou que nous ne connaissons pas ou mal. Mais ça dépend. Parfois on le dit sans s'en rendre compte vraiment...

Moi, j'ai une question à propos du bon parent:

Est-ce que les Américains sont élevés d'une manière plutôt autoritaire ou ont-ils plutôt beaucoup de libertés? Est-ce que ça arrive souvent que les parents chez vous frappent leurs enfants quand ils n'obéissent pas?

Merci de répondre. A bientôt. Maud

Ann Marie,

We do have an equivalent (or actually two) for the pronoun "on". We don't use it as often, but one often sees the equivalent in written texts. Er, you just saw it. We sometimes say "one" to be the neutral-singular, though not usually in spoken English. In addition in French, in informal situations I have heard "on" used to mean "we".

Maud -

Parents here tend to have complete authority over younger children, but then lose some as we grow up. (My parents love to complain about how teenagers never listen.) A lot of this is because they will relax many of the rules as we learn responsibility. My friends whose parents didn't relax some authority had difficulty in high school because they couldn't date or couldn't have friends over, or couldn't get in a car with one of their friends. Too much authority is not helpful to a child, so most parents yield some when their kidsl earn to be responsible.

As far as children getting hit, it does happen here. It is getting more rare as the concept of child-abuse is broadening. 30 years ago, it was not uncommon for a child to be hit with his father's belt for misbehaving. Today, such an act would send the father to jail. It is not uncommon for a child to be spanked for misbehaving (I was) but it is a growing opinion that this is unnecessary and can easily lead to more agressive acts against the child. Thus, even a small spank is considered the beginning of abuse by many people, and more and more parents avoid physical punnishment.

-Dina

Dina Je trouve trés juste ce que tu as dit.En effet il est vraiment pas évident de définir de manière claire la limite entre ce qu'un parent peut faire pour se faire respecter et ce qui relévent d'abus. Quand par exemple, tu peux voir une maman qui tape sur son petit parce que ce dernier n'arrête pas de brayer j'ai l'impression que c'est une mauvaise mére; pourtant si les parents ne font rien pour empêcher leur fils de tout faire alors il y a de forte chance pour que ce dit fils devienne un emmerdeur qui se croit tout permis et qui ne tient aucun compte des autres !!!! Voilà tu as donc soulevé une question bien épineuse qui d'aprés moi ne peux pas être résolu de manière simple ...

Even in the United States, the type of discipline given by parents differ culturally. For instance, it would seem MORE commonplace for a middle-class hispanic or black mother to slap her 17 year-old daughter for disobeying her than for a middle-class caucasian (white) mother to do the same. Also, the caucasian daughter would be more likely to report the incident as abuse than any of the aforementioned.

I know that France is not as culturally diverse as the United States, but are there apparent differences in the response to parents by people of the different cultures that are present in France?

Chidinma

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