This film portrays how one family of different households ended up with different parenting styles towards their kids and the consequences of it.
The start of the movie was funny and non-cliche. It was hilarious listening to a young boy speaking like an adult, claims he is 35, and have a grown-up wife with kids, which in the end turned out he IS a 35 year old adult speaking to his 'amalgam' in his childhood memories. The scene where Karen wants to 'help' the angry Gil in the car and crashed was hilarious, especially the part where the policeman asked how it happened then Gil answered "Show him, Karen". I could hear the whole class laughing at these scenes. We must not miss the diarrhea song too. (>v<)b Haha...
Parenting Styles
Eh-hem! .... OK... Back to serious business, now it is time to read about each parents' parenting style and the consequences of it. Let's start from the eldest parent.
The father of the Buckman family, Frank, obviously is introduced as a neglectful parent towards his children especially seen from the opening scene where he would leave his eldest son, Gil, to watch a baseball game with a paid usher while he meet up with his own friends, on his birthday. But, his style changed with his youngest son, Larry. We could see that Larry had always been his favorite son and was treated with more love than the older children. With Larry, his style changed to permissive and with his grandchild, Cool, he utilizes authoritative parenting.
The eldest son, Gil, also used a permissive style with his children. Though it looks like, authoritative parenting, there were no clear rules. This can be seen by how Gil and his wife, Karen, lets their youngest son, Justin, continuously bang his head and eats the stickers from Patty's mathematical flashcards. As well as the product of their children's problems in school, where their eldest son Kevin, had to see a psychiatrist for emotional problems, their daughter, Taylor, kissing everybody (boy?) in school, and Justin with his head banging. Though they are still good natured children, they are also seen as pampered kids.
The second child of Buckman family, Helen, had a hard time raising her children after her divorce. She somewhat portrays authoritative parenting where she did set rules for her daughter, Julie. But in exact, Helen is permissive at first with no clear rules for her son, Gary, and when she regrets chasing her daughter, Julie, out of the house. Slowly towards the end, she shows her authoritative side where she listens and attends to her children's needs without forgetting to set some rules. This can be proved by how she let's Tod, Julie's boyfriend, live in her house and talk to Gary as well as berated them as to solve their problems.
Susie Buckman and her husband, Nathan, also changed their parenting style throughout the film. They first used an authoritarian style where they trained and teach their daughter, Patty, many things at a young age and restricted her play.
In between, Susie started to realize how different her child is in play when observing and comparing other kids. After some conflict and resolution between Susie and Nathan, their parenting style changed to the authoritative style. Patty also can be seen as a happier child in the end.
The last Buckman child, Larry, is a neglectful parent that only knows how to gamble and go for get rich fast schemes. I believe this is because of the father, Frank, who used to spur on the get rich idea. Larry is the result of Frank's permissive parenting. It can be seen that he did not at all involve himself in parenting his son which symbolizes his father's previous parenting style. (or worse)
To me, there is no perfect parenting style. I believe we should adapt to the child's behavior and temperament exclusive of permissive and neglectful parenting. For example, my mum was authoritarian and uses physical punishment along with strict, yet, reasonable rules when I was young. But, as I grow older, she become more authoritative as she know I'm mature enough to make a right decision myself.
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