The Affect of Parents' Choices on Children

I'm a family studies major and to be honest I could go on all day about the topic of family. I'm just interested in how families work and what makes a successful family versus an unsuccessful family. The thing I want to focus on in this blog is the affect our parents' choices have on our choices. I think parents have a huge influence on our lives whether we want to admit it or not. Most of us don't really choose what religion or denomination we associate with. We just are what are parents are. The same goes for political affiliation and in some cases (especially in the state of Alabama) things like football. If you were to ask most football fans in Alabama, I would be willing to bet that the majority of them pull for the team they do because one or both of their parents raised them that way OR because their parents go for the rival and they wanted to be different. Our parents' affect our lives with their decisions before we are ever born. Our mothers can decide to smoke or hopefully not smoke while pregnant. They can swear off alcohol which ensures their child won't have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. There are so many decisions a mother makes while pregnant that will no doubt affect their child once he or she is born. Our parents influence our decisions greatly, sometimes without even knowing. A mother or father can tell their child something is bad for them all they want but if the child sees them doing it, it's hard for them to take their parent seriously. For example, most parents tell their kids early on that smoking is bad and they should never even try it; however, if that same parent is holding a cigarette in their hand while explaining how harmful smoking is, what good is being done? If a child is around someone who smokes their whole life, they are likely to just think it is normal and okay. I do think the opposite of this is also true, though. My grandfather smoked his whole life and eventually died of lung cancer. My mom always talks about how she hated smoking growing up because he would always smoke in their house. She says that when she went to school or when friends came over she would be self conscious because she always felt that she smelled like smoke. So my mom actually benefited in the long run from my grandfather smoking because it made her never want to try it. Basically, our parents don't really have an option. They influence us whether they want to or not. They need to remember that everything they do affects us in one way or another; but we also need to remember that nobody is perfect and everyone will eventually make a mistake or two. Most of us will be parents one day and we will hope for that same forgiveness and understanding.

2011. Bird. How Do Parents' Lifestyles Affect Their Children? Livestrong.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/501079-how-do-parents-lifestyles-affect-their-children/

Racial Health Inequalities

In the United States the average life expectancy for whites is 78.9 years; for African Americans average life expectancy is 73.8 years in the U.S. This major gap proves there is a problem when it comes to racial inequality in health. Even birth rate is unequal for different races. Someone is a middle class household who is African American is still more likely to have a baby with a low birth weight than a white woman in a similar income home. What are the reasons for these discrepancies? Our book says the high correlation between socioeconomic status (SES) and race. However, even when the social status is the same for both races, African Americans still have worse average health than whites. Our book also says that African Americans in every social class tend to be more stressed than white people because of racism in our nation. African Americans are unequally poor when compared to whites. The stress of being poor can cause health issues. Middle class and upper class African Americans can be subject to racism and stereotyping which leads to stress which in turn leads to health issues. In conclusion, stress from racism or stereotyping seems to be a reason for the gap in life expectancy between whites and African Americans in the United States.


2009. Cooley. You May Ask Yourself.

The Cross-Race Effect



Eye witness testimony is more heavily relied on in the United States court system than in several other countries. Most people think if something happened to them like rape or robbery, they would be able to pick that person out of a lineup. But what if that person isn't the same race as you? The cross race effect is a phenomenon that shows that people of a certain race have a much harder time distinguishing characteristics between people of another race. The crazy thing about it is, when we are babies, we DO have the ability to discriminate between people of another race. Babies 3-6 months have been tested and are able to see differences in not only another race, but in monkeys. Around 6-9 months, babies start to lose this identifying ability. Jennifer Thompson-Cannino(a white woman) was raped by a black male. She memorized everything she could about his face and had the police make a sketch of him. She was then asked to choose a man out of a lineup. She chose one named Ronald Cotton. She was absolutely sure he was the one who had raped her and no one was convincing her otherwise. Mr. Cotton was convicted based on Ms. Thompson-Cannino's eyewitness testimony. Mr. Cotton spent 11 years in prison before DNA evidence proved that he was innocent and it was actually a black male named Bobby Poole who had raped Ms. Thompson-Cannino. Here are the two men side by side:



To me and obviously to Ms. Thompson-Cannino, these two men look a lot alike. However, Mr. Cotton said that he thinks he and Mr. Poole share no similarities. Although Ms. Thompson-Cannino did make a very big mistake that took 11 years of Mr. Cotton's life away from him, is she really at fault? How much should eyewitness testimony be relied on, especially in cross race situations like this one? Ms. Thompson-Cannino and Mr. Cotton are actually friends now and they have a book together on the cross race effect entitled Picking Cotton.This story had a positive outcome. Of the first 279 people that were exonerated when DNA testing came about, 3/4 of them been convicted based on incorrect eyewitness testimony. 4/10 of those were cross race cases. In my opinion eyewitness testimony should not be so heavily relied on considering how inaccurate it can be.



(2012). Roth. Looking across the racial divide: How eyewitness testimony can cause problems. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/science/looking-across-the-racial-divide-how-eyewitness-testimony-can-cause-problems-279237/

The Glass Ceiling

The Glass Ceiling is a term used to describe the barrier that keeps women from climbing up the occupational ladder. On average, men earn 23% more than women. There are two main reasons for this. First of all, men are more likely to get hired than women. Men do not come with the stigma attached to them that they might have to take time off of work to have and care for children. Secondly, men make more on average than women doing the exact same job as them. I understand that there are some instances where a man would be better qualified for a job than a woman also interviewing for the same job. I also understand that women taking off work a lot might be a concern for someone. I do not, however, understand why men are paid more to do the same job that a woman would get paid less to do. If two people have the same qualifications then there should be no discrepancy. I cannot think of any reason at all that a man with a Doctorate would be paid more than a woman with a Doctorate at the same job. Our book also describes what is called the glass escalator. This is when a normally female dominated job (nurse, teacher, paralegal) is done by a man and that man has a better chance at getting a raise or leadership position than a woman at the same job. The example that our book uses, which I find very true but have never thought about, is teachers. 75% of teachers are female but only 50% of principals are female. Most of my teachers in elementary school were female, but our principal and vice principal were both male. In my opinion men are more likely to get leadership roles because they are taken more seriously than women. I think equality is important. I don't think that women should start getting more opportunities than men because there have been inequalities in the past. I think it should just be equal. People who do the same job and have the same qualifications should get paid the same regardless of gender, ethnicity, etc. I think the gender gap is getting better, but there is still a long way to go.

2005. Toussaint. The Glass Ceiling. Feminism and Women's Studies. http://feminism.eserver.org/the-glass-ceiling.txt