1.Parents’ attitude to after-school calsses
It’s no secret that after-school activities do wonders for a child’s development. They are linked to improving social skills, grades and relationships with others. What’s more, after-school programmes and activities also give kids a chance to be themselves, free of the structure they face at school.
Chinese parents are very generous when it comes to educating their children. Many also want their children to take after-school activities. Their children either learn a musical instrument or other academic classes that will equip themselves for peer competition. They believe that the more time and money you spend on after-school class, the more competitive you will become.
However, my homestay don’t support after-school classes. “Since kids spend their day primarily sitting down and following a schedule at school, when they get home it is important for them to have time to be creative, get moving and do something they enjoy,”
2. Parents’ attitude to pocket money
Children always appreciate money. Some of them like buying books and food. Others may like listening to the sound from their piggy banks.
As parents, we might as well make good use of this opportunity to:
*Help the children understand the value of money and how to use the money responsibly.
*Cultivate a spirit of independence and learning to make a decision on one’s own.
*Educate children in this very important life skill.
My homestay in the UK, they don’t think it is wise to give too much pocket money to their daughter. If the child wants more money, he/ she can make work for it. In addition, It is also important that children should know money never comes easy.
3. Surf the Internet
According to our research, in the UK around a quarter of parents are concerned about whom their children is in contact with online. There appears to be an increase in the number of parents of 5-15s who are concerned about aspects of their child’s internet use; for example, whom their children are in contact with online (26%) and the content on the websites that their child visits (28%). While it is likely that these increases are attributable to a change in the survey’s focus, from a child’s use of media ‘at home’ in previous years to both ‘at home and elsewhere’ in 2014, it is also possible that parents’ concerns about particular aspects of their child’s media use may have increased.
We also find that nine in ten parents mediate their child’s use of the internet in some way .Parents of 5-15s use a combination of approaches to mediate[1] their child’s access and use of online content and services, including:
- using technical tools
- regularly talking to their children about managing online risks
- supervising their child
- having rules (about access to the internet and/or behaviours while online )
While in China, parents are also concerned about the safety of surfing on internet. They don’t want their children to go to internet cafes , some parents prefer their children to surf the internet at home. And parents are also worried the real identity of their children’s friends online. Chinese parents also negotiate with their children about the rules of surfing on internet and playing computer games:
- the frequency of surfing on internet
- the length of time spent online
- surfing on internet as a reward for getting a good score
4.Disagreement on opinions
In Britain, when parents and their children have different opinions, children can speak their voice and parents will speak their opinions. After realizing his wrong behaviour, the child will say “oh, I am wrong”. For example, if parents ask a child to come back before 10:00pm.the kid knows it but he come late on purpose. His parents will punish him or her(Maybe he or she will be grounded next time).If a child is right, his parents will agree with him.
In China, some parents will listen to their children’s voice, while others always force their children to do as they say.
It’s good to see you directly comparing different aspects of bringing up children between the two countries. Interestingly, there seem to be plenty of similarities as well as differences.
Thanks for our nice teacher-Nancy teaching us how to create the blog! from the bolg, I benefit a lot. To be honest,it is helpful for me to improve meself, no words can express my appriciation to you-Navcy!
From this blog, we know more about similarities and differences in bringing up children in both two countries. very interesting!
Although there are many similarties, there are also many differences. Maybe we can learn some ways that British paretnts bring up their children.They value their children’s idea.