Parenting between critics of contemporary parenting culture and real support needs

Abstract

At the end of the 20th century, the creators of family policies recognized the empowerment of parents for competent handling of children as an important mechanism for overcoming both current and potential social problems. The politicization of parenthood entails the so-called determinism of parental behavior, which means that if parents do not act properly in their relationship with their child and do not provide conditions for the realization of their child's full potential, they potentially harm their child and the general development of the society to which they belong. In contemporary culture, parents are expected to be experts in child-rearing. Parenting is treated as a profession where parents should acquire formal training based on scientific knowledge. Under the influence of social expectations, additional pressure is created for parents to deal intensively with raising a child, but their roles as mother and father are not seen as a whole. Attention is directed to the procedures that are propagated as adequate and that they should apply to children. For this reason, the question of parents' empowerment to overcome difficulties in raising children, through cooperation with experts from various fields, has been raised. Research shows that there is a real need for parenting support. These programs have had positive effects on the relationship between parents and children, but nevertheless the evaluation of the programs' effects should be cautious because the results can only be seen many years after these interventions.