A child’s biggest role models from when they are young are their parents. Parents set examples for their children to follow. Children rely on their parents to teach them valuable lessons and raise them to excel in their lives. In the article “Raising Successful Children” by Madeline Levine and Mary Lavin’s “The Story of the Widow’s Son,” the idea that parents play a pivotal role in their child’s development is evident.
In the newspaper article “Raising Successful Children,” the ideal parenting style for raising children who do significantly better academically, psychologically, and socially is discussed. For example, the article states, “Decades of studies, many of them by Diana Baumrind, a clinical and developmental psychologist at the…
For example, Lavin writes, “She had made great plans for Packy, but she did not tell him about her plans. Instead she threatened him, day and night, that if he didn’t turn out well, she would put him to work on the roads, or in the quarry under the hill.” Packy’s mother is not very involved in his life. Instead of setting good examples and helping him when he needs it in school, she threatens Packy and decides what his future will be for him. Also, Lavin writes, “The widow’s hands fell to her sides. The wind of words died down within her and left her flat and limp. She didn’t know what to say. She could feel the neighbors staring at her. She wished that they were gone away about their business. She wanted to throw her arms to the boy, to drag him against her heart and hug him like a small child. But she thought of how the crowd would look at each other and nod and snigger. A ewe lamb! She didn’t want to satisfy them. If she gave in to her feelings now they would know how much she was counting on his getting the scholarship. She wouldn’t please them! She wouldn’t satisfy them!” In other words, instead of hugging and congratulating her son on getting a scholarship at fourteen, Packy’s mother continued to yell at him for killing a silly hen because she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of the neighbors and make them think that she…