Thursday, June 30, 2005

The best parents

Let me continue with the topic of parents and children. Ysterday, I posted a clipping of a news item on how in Italy, parents were bribing kids to stay with them. Today, I saw an item in The Philippine Star, which quotes a Reader's Digest survey of Asian teenagers. The finding is that Filipino parents are the coolest and hippest in Asia. I didn't find any mention of Indians.

Here are some interesting points:

* Sex, although still a taboo subject at the dinner table, is no longer that hard to discuss for Filipino parents since they are always willing to have "the talk" on sex education with their children.

* The thought of having ‘the talk’ still makes Filipino parents squirm. But they did much better than other Asian parents, coming second only to their Thai counterparts.

* Pinoy moms and dads were rated better for warning their kids about the dangers of illegal drugs, though Thai parents proved to be the most open on the subject and South Koreans shunned the topic altogether.

* Filipino moms and dads were rated A (excellent) and C (average) respectively, getting their best marks for being hard workers, showing affection, and having values which teens admire and respect.

* A majority of the Filipino teens added that their moms and dads were people that they actually liked and definitely loved.

* Moms are the ones kids and teens turn to for emotional support while they turn to their dads when they want to have a good laugh.

* Filipino dads got a 76 percent (highest) rating for humor.

* For all their criticisms, demands and contradictions, three-quarters of Asian teens gave their parents high marks for doing a good job, but they still had many issues.

* Reader’s Digest said, "The teenage years can be a scary and challenging time for both kids and their parents and the key to a better relationship between them is open communication."

Read the full story
here

3 comments:

  1. This is very informative, I didn't know this about Filipinos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lucky Filipinos. My parents squirm and do the disappearing act when 'certain' subjects creeps in into conversations. And I dont mind :)) cos we get to discuss it more freely without them being around.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i am not so sure about the credibility of readers digest though. it is such a "family" oriented mainstream magazine.

    anyways, i agree with silverine. i am more embrassed than my parents when such occasions creep in (while watching tv usually!). its more fun to discuss this with friends, i guess its always been that way and will remain that way (no matter how friendly and open parents try to be!)

    cheers
    anish

    ReplyDelete

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