Low Income=Poor Parenting?

In “Invisible Inequality,” the author argues that social class influences parenting styles. She states, “race is less important than class in shaping child-rearing patterns.” Even though race is a social construct, race very much plays a role in how parents raise their children. Cultural and ethnic traditions are taught and reinforced by parents. Class does however influence the amount and type of resources that parents are able to provide for their children.

One thing from the reading that struck me as interesting was the discussion of emerging signs of constrain that the poor and working-class families exhibited. This makes sense, and can be attributed to shame, fear of stigma, and feeling inadequate. This made me think of when I used to work as a cashier at Meijer. The people who paid with government assistance, i.e. “bridge cards,” almost always seemed ashamed when I asked them for payment.  These people seemed to be afraid that they were being judged and classified due to their class status, and, to a certain extent, many workers did judge them. 

Obviously, poor and working class people are lowest in the class hierarchy and this seems to translate to low self-worth and hopelessness, which can be observed in parenting styles. For example, low income parents may have a lack of education and this translates into being uninvolved in their children’s school.  In addition, some people may believe that low-income parents simply do not care about their children’s education, when this is not the case. If these parents were raised with parents that were passive towards education, how can we expect anything different?

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, “poverty is the single greatest threat to children’s well-being. “ I think the author of “Invisible Inequality” implied this as well. However, I do not believe this be true. There are so many factors that determine a child’s future, not just socioeconomic status. Poverty does not indicate the quality of parent(s) that children will have. For example, six of my brothers and sisters and I were raised by a single-mother, barely making a living wage. Education was always big in my family, and although we didn't have piano lessons and language instruction, she was always involved. In short, she was and is a very great and active mother and despite our class status, both my older brother and I attend the University of Michigan and the younger kids are on track to attend college as well. This type of circumstance is common to me; I hear similar stories from my friends and peers. All in all, I am not sold on the idea that middle-class parents somehow do it better because they have access to big, fancy, and elaborate resources.  In this, stems my belief that class mobility does (at least a little bit) depend on personal motivation (and push from parents) to achieve.