Parent to Parent

Once, when it came to nurture, raising, educating babies and children, values shared by families and communities were mostly based on acting and transmitting enacted practices as traditions. At the same time religion and strong powers coming from above were interested only in controlling and infrastructuring social life, but did not dealt with family matters. As described by anthropologists and ethnographs researching on such field (Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson for instance studied and reported on video footage in Bali and Samoa cultures how childhood rivalry happened because mothers were taking care of others children). The pervasive programmes of States on the population shaped policies about healthcare, education and citizenship that changed this in many countries. Families and parents were not anymore an economical unit of society, like in the Middle Age in Europe (citation needed), Anyway still today, especially in Far East and South America, forms of familism are part of the economical life in industrial and post-industrial societies (Japan, China, Mexico, etc.. citation needed). In post-modernity model parents and families have not anymore a community to support them when it comes to knowledge about raising. Individuals must refer to society and social functions of it (physicians, nurses, obstetrics, educators, psychologists, etc..) to get the right information at the right moment. Even grandparents that played a significant role in the past (the wise experienced 'opa and 'oma) are faraway and drop outs of a fast and ever changing society. The risk is -as ever and what is happening- to turn parent into a customer buying in his baby education, healthcare, losing a head role and delegate of such role formal and professional roles offered by the welfare system. This has weaked not only the role of parents, but also of families and communities when it comes to parenting and raising up children. P2P actions and methodologies may even be addressed to develop communities of practice for parents, in order to share experiences, face problems together, discuss. On the web there are plenty of services already, or blogger moms for instance, but a relationship impact based on P2P is missing in most cases. Peeragogy and folkbildning experiences and theories may turn to be good starting points to facilitate and support parent-to-parent dynamics.