In the past couple of classes, we discussed how Japanese families are much different than the American families, especially in terms of punishment. In American families, children are usually punished by being “grounded.” This consists of not allowing them to leave the house to have fun, probably only for school, for religious reasons, and that’s pretty much all the freedom they can get for a limited amount of time. Whereas in the Japanese families, children are punished by being locked out of the house. As in Japanese families, the parents in a way manipulate the child by saying, “How would you feel if you were in my shoes.” This is in a way similar to how my parents punish my sister, my brother, and I, but mostly my sister.
I believe my brother and I conformed to my parents’ style of teaching. When we were younger, my sister and I used to get hit by our parents. Not to be stereotypical, I’m pretty sure that almost every Asian child at my age or so most likely got hit by their parents in one form or another. However as we got older my parents stopped hitting us—this could also be because my parents are becoming more Americanized now because the American way of thinking is to never abuse your child. However my older sister did not exactly conform to my teaching methods. In my personal stance, I cannot sleep over any of my friend’s house, I never stayed out past midnight (except for my high school prom), and I never traveled outside the state without an adult around. However my sister is the complete opposite; my parents gave up on her. My dad’s way in punishing my sister is to kick her outside the house. She does go out all night and all day so my dad’s way of thinking is “Why would she come home now?” He knows that my sister will come back home eventually because she likes to be in her own bed, she likes to smell nice and to shower, and she likes that she has a million of clothes in her closet. By punishing her by not letting her inside the house is pretty much...