Childrearing

Children's play and and association is the main tool for gender distinction in middle childhood. Boys and girls play in separate same sex groups, and within those groups they cultivate certain gender characteristics. Within the boy groups it is common to engage in "exciting" rule breaking. They play usually revolves around sports, teams, rules and the excitement of "bad" behavior. Boys also congregate in large groups and are less touchy-feely. They use bad language more often than girls and risk getting punished more often than girls. Girls usually group themselves in pairs and define themselves by "friend", "nice", "not nice" and other such language. They play games that involve taking turns, take up less space and aren't as physical. their interactions are more personal (touching, cuddling, stroking hair) and their conversations are more personal and they express their feelings more. According to Thorne and LUria, it is also interesting to note that this segreagation along gender lines occurs more often when adults are not involved in the organization of the play. that is to say that the segregation happens voluntarily and naturally among the children.

The amount of housework done by shildren these days differs according to age and gender, and it is also influenced by the type of family they live in. For the most part the children do not have alot of responsibility around the house. It is said that they do about 15% of the housework. The most common jobs are washing dishes and cleaning the house. "Families with children ages four to six share tasks least of all," while, "families with teenage children share substantially more housework with their children than families with only preteens." It was also noted that once the "children" become adults s but still live in their paretn's home, they do less work than before. Boys mostly help with yard work and doing repairs while girls cook and clean. They are also disproportionately responsible for caring for smaller siblings when they are involved. In mother only failies kids share more overall and they shar e more in every single task. "They take nearly tiwce as much responsibility for household tasks." In stepparent families children seem to take a greater part in household chores than in nuvclear families. The contributions of sons seems to increase more. The daughters are more likely to help out with childcare than if they lived with both biological parents.

Chilrearing differs by race because black parents seem to have to worry about their children's public lives more for signs of racial problems. other than that the study showed that both parents in the middle class structured their child's lives in the same manner by concentrating on adult-organized activities, they both stressed reasoning in child-parent discussions. The situation between black and white working class and poor families was also similar. There were no real apparent differences between the way they raised their children. there were however differences between classes. Working class and poor children spent most of their time in informal play while the middle class children were involved in the adult-organized activities. slight differences between races were that black children in the middle class had slightly more activities. There was also a difference in the way that middle class parents interacted with their children. The middle class group involved their children's opiions in more of their conversations as a way to cultivate their reasoning skills. The working class and poor families were less likely to continue a conversation to find oaut their child's opinions, they would listen but would not elongate the situation. they are also less likely to actually start a conversation of this nature.

Signs that children are commercialized are everywhere. First graders are aware of about 200 brand names, "every half-second, somewhere in the world a Barbie is sold," McDonald's is a consumed at a huge percent with alot of it being the sale of happy meals, children ages four to 12 made $30 billion in sales in 2002, and ages 12 to 19 made $170 billion. The article also states that children are more attuned to actual brands. They ask for specific brands when they want something. The effects of commercialization are bad. The lives of children today are said to be more sped up, packed with tons of activities that they have to do, and they are less likely to be allowed to just be kids. There is more pressure, overload and less relax time. there are also huge problems with health. Children eat horrible junk foods that are advertised and the rate of youth obesity are rising. This also leads to weigt related problems like more diabetes and hypertension. There is also the adverse affect of eating disorders among children. Kids are said to be smoking, drinking and using drugs at an earlier age. There is also an increase in emotional and mental health problems. The "upsurge in materialistic values" is said to "undermine the well being" of kids and leads them to more depression, anxiety and worse overall health.