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The

views of parents who experience intergenerational


poverty on parenting and play: A qualitative analysis
A Critical Essay

Journal Title: Child: Care, Health and Development
Year of Publication: 2015
Volume and/or Issue Number: Issue No. 41
Article Title: The views of parents who experience intergenerational poverty on parenting and
play: A qualitative analysis
Page Number or Article Number : page 873 881
Name/s of author/s and addresses: R. L. Smith,* K. Stagnitti,* A. J. Lewis and G. Ppin*



In partial fulfillment of the requirements in HE 290 A
1st Semester AY 2016-2017




19 December 2016




Submitted to:
Dr. Guevarra and Dr. Florendo




Submitted by:

Glennie Marie M. Sina-on
2006-00218
Master in Family Life and Child Development



College of Home Economics
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
Play has long been recognized as an important and necessary vehicle in
childs physical, social, emotional and cognitive development in as early as 1900s,
which was further supported and strengthened by famous child development
theorists such as Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget and John Dewey. Majority believe that
play is natural and innate in children. Nowadays, we see playing children in TV
commercials and even in movies. We even get a glimpse on how effective and
helpful a milk product is when we see how a child becomes more active at play after
drinking the milk being advertised.

But have we seen TV commercials in which we see parents themselves play
with their kids? Yes, there are TV commercials, teleseryes, and movies that may
show parents playing with their kids but what we usually see on TV are parents are
on the side, either watching or cheering for their kids. We see parents as the
caregiver, the leader, the guide more often than parents as somebody who are of
the same level as their kids. In other words, parents are always portrayed as people
above and over the kids and it is rare to find portrayals of parents as mere
playmates of their children.

And if we find TV commercials that show parents who play with their kids,
we would notice that these are families that are economically better off. I remember
one Filipino advertisement about an ibuprofen or paracetamol type of drug in which
the father rejected his childs invitation to play because he is both busy working and
is in pain because of overwork. The Filipino family being depicted in this
commercial is apparently a low-income family.

If we observe, there is a disconnection between the facts that play has long
been recognized as valuable to child development and that parents directly
involve themselves in their childs play. In other words, even parents believe that
play is necessary to child development, they do not see themselves as playmates of
their children. The disconnection is even more strengthened when we inject the
socio-economic status of the family, particularly, of the parents. TV commercials
these days show that impoverished parents do not spend time with their kids a lot
and do not even have the time to play with their children anymore because they
focus on work to be able to provide to the family. Since this is the current trend
among families in poverty, it is interesting to determine how parents view parenting
and play. A research (published as a journal article) entitled The views of parents
who experience intergenerational poverty on parenting and play: A qualitative
analysis was written because according to its authors, there is minimal literature on
how parents experiencing intergenerational poverty view their role as parents and
the value they place on childrens play. Moreover, the research found that parents
believed that whilst play was valuable to their childs development, it was not their
role to play with children. However, if parents did play with their child, they noticed
positive changes in their childs behavior. (Smith, et.al., 2015) This finding provides
support to my observations on the TV commercials.

In addition, I observe that the research is timely and relevant. I appreciate
that there are efforts being made now towards child development, that it is not only
focused on families that can afford the best early childhood care and development
anymore, but ECCD is now being made available at the poor mans table. Second, the
research finding tells a lot about how demanding a work can be, especially to the
poor, that the struggle to survive also affects the parental interactions with the child.
Third, technology can either make or break the parent-child relationship. Fourth,
there are other ways play can be viewed more positively and be utilized by parents
to their advantage in parenting. Nonetheless, I would like to further analyze the
research through expounding the four aforementioned major points that I have
come up with:

The research is timely and relevant.

In September 2015, a total of 193 countries1 signed and committed to the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or SDG. The fourth goal is Universal
Quality Education. All countries, both developed and developing, that committed to
the UN is already on its work towards the achievement of goal number 4. Every
country is doing its best to make early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary, post-
tertiary, technical and vocational education be available and accessible to all
constituents. Early childhood education, before, was being taken for granted
especially in developing countries because of the thought that it is on tertiary
education that poor families must invest the most. Poor families do not see pre-K as
important. Moreover, they send their children directly to the first grade without
undergoing pre-K. In the Philippines, this was the norm until the December 5, 2000,
when the Early Childhood Care and Development Act of 2000 officially became a
law2. When ECCD has become institutionalized in the Philippines and in many
countries, poor parents saw that stimulating children to learn is essential during
infancy to age five and that the benefits of this can be seen when the children reach
adulthood. During the ECCD institutionalization, parents have also seen the value of
play to child development. Many parents, before, underestimate the benefits and
value of play and would like their children to be able to read and write right away
when they send their children to pre-K. Many parents refuse to spend and send
their children to preschool because they thought their children would learn and
experience nothing more than play. This research made by R.L. Smith and co-
authors is timely and relevant because the world is trying to make parents around
the world understand the importance of ECCD, thus, the importance of play also, as
one of the components of ECCD. I personally appreciate this research because it
attempted to show the view and attitude of parents who are experiencing
intergenerational poverty on parenting and play. The research only shows that
there are social, economic and cultural factors that could be facilitating and
hindering families and nations towards the achievement of quality early childhood
education. Like in the article, it was mentioned that the parents of the majority of 13

1 Retrieved from www.undp.org
2 Retrieved from http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2000/ra_8980_2000.html
parent-respondents never played with them as children. More than half of the
respondents came from separated, divorced or blended families and from low-
income and struggling families.

The nations have a lot of work to do in terms of institutionalizing ECCD,
break the intergenerational view and attitude of families on play and ECCD as
neither important nor investment. That is why I was wishing that there must also be
a research like this in developing countries since the research of R.L. Smith, et.al.
was conducted in Victoria, Australia alone. I think that if this research is done in the
Philippines, the number of Filipino respondents who would say that their parents
never played with them would be greater than the number of Australian
respondents who said so in this research.

Demanding work equals less parent-child interaction

I couldnt agree more on the statement from the article, Most parents said
stress impacted on their parenting and the way they engaged with their children. This
must have been the root cause why the respondents of the research view the idea of
them playing with their children as ridiculous3. I agree with this because as a
practicing Social Worker, I never encountered parents (from urban and rural poor
communities), whom I interviewed about their typical day as parents, who shared
that they allot time and effort in playing with their children. What I used to hear the
most is Gigising sa umaga, pagkatapos magluluto, pagkatapos ihahatid sa iskul ang
mga bata, tapos, uuwi, maglilinis, maglalaba, tapos magluluto ng tanghalian, tapos,
magsusundo sa kinder at grade 1, tapos uuwi, patutulugin ang mga bata, tapos
magtutupi ng sinampay, tapos magluluto ng hapunan, tapos maghuhugas ng mga
pinagkainan, tapos, magtuturo sa takdang aralin nila, tapos, patutulugin ang mga
bata, tapos aasikasuhin at patutulugin si mister. Most parents busy schedule
evolves around income generation and career sustainability. As soon as they are


3 From page 877 of the article
able to provide the food, shelter, clothing and education of their children, they
already feel that they are accomplished for the day, not seeing play as one of their
daily provisions or activities with their children. Parents also think that hugging,
kissing, and tapping their children at the back as a sign of support are already
enough for their children to feel loved and cared for. But in ECCD, play is different
from all of these. It makes the parent-child bond stronger. It provides opportunity to
the parents to know their child better socially, cognitively, and emotionally. It
serves as supplemental to in-school education which is facilitated by parents at
home. It is also a stress-buster for parents. But because most parents believe that
the best way to make their children feel loved is through providing them their needs
and wants, parents spend their more time, effort, their presence and thoughts on
their jobs.

Technology can make or break parent-child relationship

The research found that mothers use television for two main reasons to
pacify their children so they could have a break when they were stressed and to
settle their children before bedtime. The respondents shared that the television is
their babysitter. I agree with this finding because it is a reality being faced by
families even in the Philippines. I happened to watch on TV one poor family from a
rural poor community wherein the mother used television to pacify her infant child.
However, I honestly doubt that television is the only technology raised by the
respondents in this research, which was conducted in 2015, because there are
gadgets that are being used by parents to pacify children nowadays more than
television. As early as 2010, tablet and phablets were already in. Thats why I am
wondering why the 13 Australian respondents have cited only the television. In the
Philippines, as early as 2010, parents have already exposed their kids to tablets, and
touchscreens. Nonetheless, I couldnt agree more to the idea that gadgets are indeed
the pacifiers and babysitter of kids nowadays. I even see Filipino parents who give
tablets instantly to their kids whenever they start crying and having tantrums. I see
these scenes especially when I am in family get-togethers. When the mum is busy
chatting with other mums, a child starts to cry because another child is bothering
him/her. The crying child gets the attention of his/her mum as well as of the other
mums, as a result, the childs mum would hand him/her over the iPad without rules
or conditions anymore. Although giving parents their break is necessary, I say that
it is not necessary that the pacifier and the babysitter must always be the iPad.
Physical play between the parent and the child is a better stress-reliever for parents
and a better way to settle children. Both can do exercises and sports together. They
can do pretend play like in the McDo Philippines TV commercial, in which the father
wears princess costume along with her two daughters. If dressing up takes a lot of
time and effort, I say that tablets and other gadgets take also a lot of time and effort
at work for someone to purchase them. Further, pretend play, sports, board games
and other related games that do not need virtual technology, pave way for a closer
and tighter bond between parents and children. Parents know their childs
temperament better through physical play. Parents cannot see their childs attitude
and behavior when the latter only faces and speaks to his/her iPad all day. Also,
when children are already used to spending more time with their gadgets, they tend
to forget about their parents, take the latter for granted, lose respect on the latter,
which may further result to disintegration of families. In addition, parents will never
know whom are their children talking to or playing with. When left with the internet
alone, we never know, the child can already be a victim of online abuse and
exploitation.

Other definitions of play must be laid down

One critique that I have to pick up from the article is that it did not mention
the authors view on play. It did not state the authors definition of play in the first
place. The respondents shared that they do not play with their children because
they believe that their older kids can collaborate with the younger ones and because
they believe that play is the childs role and that the child do not need their parents
to play because play comes naturally to the child and that the child knows what to
do and how to do it. I am wondering how the research interviewers asked the
question, Do you play with your child? because I believe that parents from different
cultures and backgrounds have their own definitions of play. Play is not necessarily
planned, effortful and time-consuming. It can be as simple as when a mother sings
with her child while she is driving and the child is sitting on the backseat of the car.
Play can be as simple as singing or hopping or goofing around while the mother and
the child do household chores together. Play can be as simple as when the father
tickles his child while he is tutoring his child on number and letters. Play can mean
several different activities across culture and I was hoping that this definition was
mentioned in the research/article.

Overall, I appreciate the research because it showed the world that it is
indeed time to look at how parenting is for parents who experience
intergenerational poverty. I may be looking for more depth but the research
supported the readings that I previously had and even what I saw and heard from
the news. This research told us that if Australias impoverished parents have poor
views on how play is impacted by their parenting and how play affects or can affect
their relationships with their children, how much more for parents from developing
countries like the Philippines? Indeed, this research is timely and relevant for us to
improve our ECCD system and push more parents to have a much more positive
view and attitude on play and ECCD per se. This research is timely and relevant
because it only tells us that we need to take the SDG number 4 more seriously and
that we are already on the first step in achieving universal quality education ECCD
was already institutionalized. We only need to inspire more parents, make them
understand better that ECCD does not finish inside the playgroup or pre-K
classroom alone but also playgroup must be extended to the home in order for the
child to gain complete benefits that ECCD, including play, has to offer. This research
has also reiterated the fact that stress from demanding work negatively affects and
impacts parent-child interactions. It is noteworthy that the authors mentioned on
the last page that the results of this research would be considered when they
produce a new program that would benefit both children and parents who belong to
that playgroup in Victoria, Australia. Also, technology is something that parents
should be careful to be depending on. It already comes in different shapes, colors
and sizes. It is already invading and dictating every childs mind that it is a necessity
and that it will give children nothing but fun and entertainment. Again, technology
can be depended on like a nanny from time to time but if not used along with proper
guidance and supervision, technology can break the parent-child relationships, even
worse is that technology can break a childs life. Lastly, there is a lot of different
ways for parents to play with their children. Imagination, passion and commitment
to have fun and bond are key. With the fast changing world that we have right now,
technology is not the only one evolving nowadays. Parenting and play do too.
Furthermore, what we incessantly have to be committing about is the preservation
and development of life, of the family, and of the child.

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