Negotiating Tradition and Modernity: Parenting Practices and Moral Ethics among Generation Y in Pakistan

Abstract

Aim of the Study: This study Negotiating Tradition and Modernity”  analyzes the parenthood, moral ethics and gendered practices of raising children of Generation Y parents in collaboration with Judith Butler’s conceptualization of gender performativity.

Methodology: The research is qualitative and was conducted through 20 semi-structured interviews with ten male and ten female parents from the rural and the urban areas of Rawalpindi.

Findings: Results indicate that Generation Y parents straddle traditional and modern paradigms with discipline, moral responsibility, and emotional connection. Parents, of course, continue to stress achhi parwarish (a good upbringing) as a moral and social imperative but they are also providing rationales, engaging in explanations, having conversations, offering emotional support, and otherwise displaying a selective modernization of the more authoritarian style of parenting they were themselves brought up under. Urban parents were somewhat more accommodating, while rural parents were under more social pressure, showing differences of degree rather than kind within a shared moral matrix. Education acted as a buffer, making parents more informed and thoughtful without completely challenging mainstream values. There were slow but incipient changes in involvement of fathers in the home and in childcare responsibilities.

Conclusion: In general, Generation Y parenting is a balancing act between tradition and modernity, full of emotional attunement, moral regulation, and gendered social expectations realized in attempts to provide children with a well-rounded upbringing that reconciles cultural obligation with modern aspirations.