Strict parenting isn’t always the best- Cynthia Quarcoo

Founder and Managing Partner of CQ Legal and Consulting, and founder of Africa 1 Media, Cynthia Quarcoo, has put forth her view on strict parenting and why she disagrees with the style.
In an interview with Rev. Erskine on the Y Leaderboard series on YFM, she confessed that she did inherit that strict style of parenting from her mother, however, she now challenges it.
She said, “Being strict is an attempt to make children succeed but it can be a bit too critical. Being a parent now, I can understand that parents mean well but sometimes the approach in doing it can lead to a child becoming very insecure about themselves.
Particularly when you’re growing up in a family where there are children, there’s this thing about pitching them against each other. Like if your brother gets As in a subject, why are you not getting As”.
Cynthia narrated that being an only child, she was usually pitched against her cousins and although she was a smart kid, she found school boring because the style of teaching did not give her the chance to explore.
According to her, she had a very analytical inquiring mind yet the school supported accepting and reproducing exactly what had been taught, hence she had a bit of struggle in school. She revealed that at some point, she tried to challenge the school system but that only ended her in trouble when she got home.
“When you’re a single mother raising a child, you want the child to be perfect so my mother in an attempt to make me that perfect child, was extremely critical and I know she didn’t mean it. At some point, I thought she did but even when I had my children, I did that a bit but then I started to change”, she further added.
The businesswoman advised in accordance with this that people should be mindful of the words that they speak about themselves and that which parents say to their children particularly in their formative years, as they tend to have a great impact on the individual.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye