Parent

Parent

a. A person who is one of the progenitors of a child; a father or mother. Also, in extended use: a woman or man who takes on parental responsibilities towards a child, e.g. a stepmother, an adoptive father.

In a general sense, it’s quite simple for one to become a parent. Someone that has a child technically becomes a parent.  But this is only the literal sense of being a parent. When considering someone’s parent, we often think of the one that gave birth to that person. Though, this is not always the case. 

I recall once a few years ago, a Baptist preacher during a sermon had said that any woman can become a mother, but it takes much effort to become “Mama”. The next sense of the word “parent” is basically a guardian of a child. A parent “takes on parental responsibilities towards a child” when that person does everything in his or her power to take care of the child. Being this type of parent is more difficult to achieve as it takes much more commitment. One has to be extremely motivated to be a parent and spend so much of their life taking care of a child. This definition of a parent is what describes the nature of the parents that will be described in my essay.

Parents could also be a word to describe animals as well. Animal parents, especially mothers, have been known to be extremely protective of their young. In nature, animal mothers are usually more dedicated to their offspring, as opposed to today’s society when there are often times when mothers will just give up the baby to anyone that will take him or her. This dedication of animal parents is what brings us to, at times, compare human parents to animal parents. Such as when all of a mother’s children come of the age to leave home, the mother may develop “empty nest” syndrome, which is a metaphor comparing a woman to a bird as its babies had learned to fly. 

A parent doesn’t always have to be a progenitor of his/her child. As the definition mentions, parents could also be the adopted guardians of children. In today’s society, there is discrepancy on which people are suited to be parents. For example, gay couples are sometimes not considered suitable for parenting children. This tension in opinion could lead to issues within society.

Parenting, as it shall be stated in my paper, is more of a natural instinct. It is innate for parents to shield their children from anything harmful and to make sure their children come of the age in which they can care for themselves and possibly children of their own.