Parenting 101 coming form an expert

 Hello G'Day welcome to this instructional post on how to raise your children right. Coming from an absolute expert with less than 0 years of experience JohnnyBloggyBoy.

Today we will take a look at different concepts of parenting here in Japan as well as some of my own beliefs.

Let us start with Amae, a japanese concept of dependence on others. While the western world values independence and tries to teach it young members of society as early as possible, here is a bit different. It is not so uncommon to spoil your child, to let it be the center of your attention and to "rule" the home. If I as a kid would say that I do not like take out trash and I would not do it, let me tell you the belt would swing (picture below to demonstrate this idea). Meaning that they did their best not to spoil us, which is quite opposite than what you see in Japan.

 

But at the same time when I would get older my parents would allow me to have more and more initiative given that I defended my idea convincingly enough. By doing this my parents showed me that having my own individual approach mattered and taught me how to actually be independent of the opinions and beliefs of the others. I am not the biggest fan of amae, while I understand that it grants some degree of respect and affection towards your sempai it might prove to be dangerous, since it could result in learned helplessness as some studies have shown. 

However, I really like the gradual introduction of social expectations part, which allows children to learn as soon as possible how to properly act in the social situations, something I would like to see back home more often.

A short one today, see you in the next one!