Does Parenting Really Matter?

Being in a parenting and child rearing class now we have really discused if parents matter or not. It made me think back to an article I read last semester in my Human Development class called Does Parenting Really Matter? written by Laura E. Berk. It is a good article because it startes off saying why people don't think parents matter. For those parents who have kids that just went off the deep in its a nice excuse for them becuase parents don't matter. But then it goes on telling of research done showing that parents do matter. She says, "The idea that in a long-standing relation such as one between parent and child, the child would be influencing the parent but the parent would not be influencing the child is absurd." Berk goes on telling of different researches proving that parents matter and it is not the same experiment over and over again but she gives different kinds of experiments. She sums up saying, "parenting effects combine in complex ways with many other factors, including heredity and peers." After she states that she gives the audience four recommendations to ensure the best outcomes for one's children. So I think she ends it well also, she gives all this proof for how parents matter and then says how to help.