Parents & Children

Therefor, communication, trust and respect are both very important factors in both The Veldt and Penny in the Dust. However, they are both viewed differently by each family and both families turned out completely different. That is why I think the two stories we read are the perfect examples of how communication, trust and respect influences how a family functions. Respect is another huge issue for the parents and kids in The Veldt. One instance of this would be the kids louring their parents into a trap and eventually killing them. This obviously shows a lack of respect and mental health on the kids behalf. I don't think the parents much respected their children either, they showed this by threatening to turn off the nursery and even the whole house without even discussing it with the kids. The family doesn't function as a family but more like a couple. The parents being the man, who thinks he's in control and dishes out the orders and the children being the woman who really has the man whipped even though he still thinks he's in charge. Respect in Penny in the Dust on the other hand could not be better. Peter shows an incredible amount of respect to his father, almost to the point where he i An Essay on Parent/Child Relationships

The misunderstandings between parents and their children have gone back as far as there have been families. Two good examples of this can be found in The Veldt by Ray Bradbury and Penny in the Dust by Ernest buckler. The differences in parenting methods are quite plain to see when looking at communication, trust and respect. In The Veldt communication is definitely lacking in the sense that the family never really deals with any deep issues. The parents never ask their kids directly what is bothering them, instead they go to a psychiatrist. This would make Peter and Wendy feel neglected and more importantly they would feel as if they had no parents. The kids don't help too much either however, they never tell their parents what's bothering them, instead they turn to their nursery and use it as their guardian, their home away from home, or their parent away from their parents. In Penny in the Dust there are less serious problems with communication. Peter and his father have a unique bond that is not unhealthy but could use some work. They both understand each others need for space and do not upset each other with deep psychological talk. Peter is not spoiled or pampered but feels loved all the same. And unlike The Veldt It is now widely recognized by psychologists that the first few years of a child's experiences are crucial in her subsequent personality and behavioral development. The most critical aspect in this regard is the child's relationship with her parents in the formative years. The recognition of this simple fact has led to the development of the "attachment theory" that emphasizes the importance of a close parent-child relationship in promoting a balanced, caring and trustful individual-so essential for the evolution of a healthy society. This essay gives a brief overview of the "parent-child attachment theory" and outlines its importance. Various people have carried out research on parent-child attachment during the last sixty years. Prominent names among them are John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth and William Sears. (Nix 2005) Bowlby, regarded as the father of the attachment theory, believed that all infants would become "attached"1 to their care-givers regardless of the type of care they receive-whether the care received was abusive, responsive, or inconsistent. However, the Building on the work of Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth devised a procedure, called The Strange Situation, to observe attachment relationships between a mother and child. Her observations led her to categorize children on the basis of their type of attachment such as "secure," "anxious-ambivalent," "anxious-avoidant" or "disorganized." According to her theory of attachment, those children who received secure attachment were...