children give up happens to be the only language that the parents speak?
What is lost when children and parents cannot communicate easily with one
another?
What is lost is no less than the means by which parents socialize their
children: When parents are unable to talk to their children, they cannot
easily convey to them their values, beliefs, understandings, or wisdom
about how to cope with their experiences. They cannot teach them about the
meaning of work, or about personal responsibility, or what it means to be a
moral or ethical person in a world with too many choices and too few guideposts
to follow. What is lost are the bits of advice, the consejos parents
should be able to offer children in their everyday interactions with them.
Talk is a crucial link between parents and children: It is how parents impart
their cultures to their children and enable them to become the kind of men
and women they want them to be. When parents lose the means for socializing
and influencing their children, rifts develop and families lose the intimacy
that comes from shared beliefs and understandings.