Raising our children without pretending the world hasn't changed.
Many African parents are raising children in circumstances very different from the ones that shaped us.
Our children may have different expectations of privacy, independence, identity, relationships and what it means to be respected. At the same time, many parents want to preserve values, connections and ways of understanding family that still matter deeply.
The interesting questions often sit somewhere between those two realities.
Where do you want to start?
Parenting & Authority
How do we think about respect, boundaries, discipline and independence when our children are growing up with different expectations from the ones many of us had?
Respect, obedience, discipline, boundaries, independence, teenagers, privacy and parental authority.
Explore Parenting & AuthorityCulture & Identity
How do children understand who they are when home, school, friends, wider society and extended family may all give them different messages about identity and belonging?
African identity, diaspora identity, belonging, heritage, language, being described as “too Western”, cultural expectations and raising children across cultures.
Explore Culture & IdentityFamily & Expectations
What happens when achievement, comparison, family reputation, gender or extended-family expectations become part of the way children understand themselves?
Achievement, academic pressure, comparison, siblings and cousins, gender expectations, extended family and family reputation.
Explore Family & ExpectationsFamily & Expectations
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