Filipino Children in Family and Society

Filipino Children in Family and Society:
Growing Up in a Many-People Environment

The Family Circle Around the Child
neighboring
local kin household
nuclear group group
family
2
1.
NUCLEAR FAMILY
basic form of a household that is made up of

parents and their unmarried children.
2.
LOCAL KIN GROUP
includes consanguine and affinal relations,
extended family members that live in the
vicinity of the child’s family and there is a
presence of frequent important day-to-day,
face-to-face interactions between relatives.
3.
NEIGHBORING HOUSEHOLD
GROUPS
Neighboring relations are between people
who still interact amiably with one another
even without blood relations.
Features of Child
Rearing
6
Firstly, newlywed couples rarely move away from
their family to live in far off areas where everyone is
a stranger. They usually choose to stay at first with
their parents or live somewhere in the vicinity where
parents, uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters and
cousins are grouped together
7
Secondly, at infancy children are given their
parent’s full attention. The no lacking of parental
figures to watch over the child keeps them from
maturing quickly and becoming independent of adult
supervision. So even if another baby is born and the
parents diverted their focus to the new-born, the
child won't feel neglected.
8
“From childhood, he learns to enjoy
being taken care of and realizes that
he can make others happy by being
dependent on them. There is no age
when a child is expected to leave
home or an age when he is expected
to become fully self-reliant.”
-Good Parent
9
Conditions of a
Good Child
10
When having children a lot of time, money, and
effort is spent by the parents to properly
nurture them and in turn, the relationship
between parents has always been strong. This
strong bond between parent and child is a form
of investment, as the parents get old they are
counting on their children to take care of them
in their elderly years.
11
In the Philippines, it is strongly believed that
children are blessings, gifts and living proof of
God's grace and love to the parents. The children
are a form of investment of the parents so
when they grow old, they feel secure that
someone will take care of them. It is believed
that the more the family members the happier
the family is.
12
Expansion and
Manipulation of Dyadic
Relations 13
In the Philippines, the bonds
between family are shared by a
great number of relatives, even
if they are distantly related like
third or fourth cousins they are
still recognized as relatives.
14
Another important factor in the
development and social relations of the
Filipino child is the ritual kinship called
the compadre system.
15
The religious significance of
establishing a ritual parent is to
have someone to assume the
role of guardian, to provide
guidance and care so that the
child will grow up to be a
devout Catholic.
16
The compadre system functions as a way of
making the more formal bond of a close
friendship, or of drawing distant relatives closer
together, in other words, of making certain close
relations even closer.
17
The parents will be able to have at least three
sets of “godparents” for one child (at baptism,
confirmation, and wedding) and can choose
different sets of “godparents” for each child,
and will thus be able to form ritual kindred
relations with a large number of people.
These ritual kinsfolk combine with the actual
relatives, who are numerous, to begin with, to
make kindred relations in Filipino society 18
Behavioral patterns such as pakikisama,
euphemism, the use of go-betweens, and
utang na loob are indispensable methods of
realizing “smooth interpersonal relations.” For
behavior that departs from these accepted
norms, the concept of hiya (the
uncomfortable feeling that accompanies
awareness of being in a socially
unacceptable position, or performing a 19
The importance of Filipino social life, as well as the
socialization process of children in the Philippines,
therefore lies in the awareness of each person that
he or she is situated in interwoven diverse human
relations, and particularly in the awareness that each
dyadic relation must be maintained always in good
terms so that the individual can depend on it when
the need arises. These relations are not fixed and
unchanging once they are established, and the bond
may break naturally unless the social distance of the
two persons is constantly narrowed.
20
Never cooked
a rice like
this? You're
not a Filipino
21

Filipino Children in Family and Society

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Filipino Children in Family and Society

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Filipino Children in Family and Society:

Growing Up in a Many-People Environment

basic form of a household that is made up of

You might also like