Lucas Carneiro

CHLD 10

June 4, 2013

Virtual Child Summary

1. My virtual child, Caue, is now eighteen years old and is on his

way to college to study at a "prestigious out-of-state institution".

For the most part, he has shown to be a responsible child,

especially in the area of academics. Physically he's never had

any problems, no hospital visists, broken bones, ecognitive

development has always been above averge. During parenting I

tried to let his interests guide him, but at the same time I tried to

encourage positive behavior and challange him as much as

possible. The only area where Caue showed any trouble was

socially. In his early years, he was very shy and took a while to

warm up to new people and places. During his teens he got into

some trouble, like drinking, coming home past curfew, getting a

tattoo, and a car accident, which can be partially attributed to

hanging with the wrong crowd. His emotional development

however seemed stable throughout. He never had any emotional

outbreaks or episodes. I believe he is more than well prepared for

college life and will be very succesfull

2. To consider if I've met my goal as a parent I must first define

what I think my goal as a parent should be. I believe that the

ultimate goal of a parent should be to produce a young adult who

is physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally ready to live

life independently. When raising Caue I couldn't help but reflect

back on my own parent's parenting style, which was for the most

part, permissive. Looking back now I realized things for me

could've turned out different if they had exerted just a little more

control and guidance, because a lot of the time as a child and

teen we really don't know what is best for us and it helps to be

pointed in the right direction. That is what I tried to do with Caue.

I wanted him to experience as much as possible, but in controlled

postitve environments which would foster his development. I

opted for a authoritarian parenting style, believing that this

method would be most effective in getting Caue to make correct

decisions for himself. I'm really happy, and even pleasently

surprised, of how well he turned out to be.

3. As a former child, I can remember that during schoolyears,

especially in middle and high school, your peers are at the center

of your focus. I'd imagine it was virtually the same for Caue.

Many firsts happen with friends instead of family. Like first a first

kiss, first drink, first social event, among other things. One of the

things that I'm reminded is when Caue began asking questions

about different religions and world views. He seemed interested

in the questions of religion even though that was something I

hadn't emphasized in his upbringing. Also the fact that he joined

his school's humane society was a surprise for me because it was

something that he did all on his own. It was fun to see that the

concepts of caring and kindness that I tried to foster in him as a

young child were now coming to manifest.