In this episode, Baaba and I explore what drives African immigrant parents and their children apart. In the African immigrant community, our Parental skills come from past experience, and it is based on how we were raised. Still, many of us are unwilling to incorporate new skills since we have relocated into a new world, new era, and understanding that our children face different challenges unfamiliar to parents.
We touched on the conflict of cultures in the immigrant home, the pressure parents place on kids to conform to narrow definitions of success, and how African parenting skills translate into western society. As a parent and immigrant, we explore my upbringing related to the cultural and religious context I was raised in? What were some of the values I was presented with? What techniques did my parents used on me with regards to like their discipline style, confidence-building style, engagement with your emotional well-being, etc.).
We reflect on how those upbringing could shed light on our parenting skills and our parental style. We did discuss the differences in morals, values, and ethics between African cultures and American culture? (i.e., respect between elders and youth, ways of disciplining children, children as extensions of parent vs. children as independent persons, communication styles, suppression of emotions vs. encouragement of emotional expressions, the importance of religion, etc.)
How is the African parenting style distinct from the American style? How can African parents blend African and American child-raising styles to build up well-balanced kids who do not struggle so much with their identities? We discuss four parenting styles: Authoritarian Parenting, Authoritative Parenting, Neglectful Parenting, and Permissive Parenting.
