PARENTS' AUTHORITY AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THEIR EDUCATIONAL ACTIONS

Abstract

Facing a gradual crisis of moral authority in the modern world, educationalists underline its importance in the education and upbringing process. The first and, for a long period of time, the most important authority for children are their parents, who often fail to understand the nature of their own significance and impact on the child. They often wrongly associate parental authority with unquestionable power and this faulty reasoning carries negative developmental implications as the child's submissiveness is not tantamount to acceptance and may result from his/her weakness or fear rather than from recognizing parental authority. This article is to emphasise that parents need to be fully aware of their own educational actions in the child upbringing process. It is important to understand that such actions affect the way parents are perceived by children. This article suggests a number of behaviours conducive to building and sustaining the sense of authority and respect as these features are fundamental in ensuring the effectiveness of educational actions undertaken by parents in the upbringing process.

Keywords

• authority
• child upbringing
• parents
• family relations