ENG 1 (should parents be responsible for their children's actions) Research Paper

ENG 1 (should parents be responsible for their children's actions) - Research Paper Example It is the age at which a person is required to take full responsibility of his/her actions (Uniacke 57). Before attaining the maturity age, the behavior of a person is mainly attributed to the parenting style. It is more often assumed that the parent has a great influence on the actions of children since children often do what they have seen others do, and the parent is supposed to be in charge of helping the child to understand good and bad actions. In some instances, the child may act in a unique way that he has never seen anyone else do. Parents are in charge of ensuring that the children learn how to relate with other people. They are expected to teach the children to be respectful to other people as well as their property. This creates a general perception that guides the child in regard to acceptable behavior until he/she attains maturity age. This paper is a critique of whether parents should be responsible for their children’s actions. The behavior of children is largely determined from their moral intelligence. This is the intelligence acquired as the children grow up while observing the behavior of others in the society (Coles 37). Parents are the closest members of the society to the children especially during early childhood when the child develops cognitive capabilities. They need to ensure that the children learn good behavior before they begin interacting with others in school as well as in other social settings. Moral behavior is learned throughout life, but the early stages of development are critical. Parents are required to act as the role models of their children. Kurcinka observes that children tend to learn from the actions of adults (56). If the children witness the parents engaging in unethical behavior such as lying to other people, it is unlikely that they will be convinced that lying is bad. This also applies to other actions such as violent behavior and the use of