Gender Generalizations in Parenting

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Managers quickly discover there are many differences in the way that the different genders handle problems, challenges, and disappointments in the workplace.

Past common wisdom attributed those differences mostly to hormones…or corporate culture…or just plain bias against one sex or another, depending on the organization you worked for.

Siblings and Rivalry

The only management parallel I could think of for this post is the heinous practice that some managers have of pitting one employee against another for the “boss’ favor.” Yes, sibling rivalry is alive and well in corporate America, particularly where the hierarchy is very rigid and bureaucracy has layers that can only be navigated well with the help of someone higher up the food chain.

Baby Shower Shock

Managing well involves using the proper tools for the task at hand while keeping the costs down and quality as high as possible. Hmm…how does that correlate to parenting?

How about baby and kid stuff? There is a huge industry which has sprung up around trendy ways to care for, maintain, train, and restrain your bundles of joy and much of it will empty your pocketbook (and those of your generous friends and family) when the “tried and true” will do just as well in most cases.

Parental Abuse

 

There is not a clear-cut management parallel in this post. Punishment and abuse of children are in the news lately, and this is a completely different, but related slant on the issue.

Recently I was in a supermarket, rolling cart peacefully down the frozen food aisle when I witnessed something disturbing.

A young mother was pushing a cart full of groceries with her son in the seat of the cart, facing her. Evidently, the young man either took exception to something she decided to buy or to something he wanted and she decided not to buy.

As I walked near them, he started to beat her.

Speaking in Love Languages

It is so important to know that you are speaking a “common language” in your business since misunderstandings can be many and can blossom into lawsuits as confusion becomes fear, which then becomes anger. 

Defining terms and coming to agreement on what you are discussing and how you are discussing it are always good steps, and yet in our relationships with our families, we rarely do that very simple thing.