Tag Archives: social sciences

Tallahassee.com “Respecting Parents… what’s that?”


In today’s modern comedy shows, we see the image of what family is or what people think it should be. In these shows, the dad is a goofball who never seems to get anything right and the mother is an emotional control freak who rules the home. There’s humor in these scenarios, but they lack to show the Truth.

From my education in social sciences under the political science department, I can ramble off the political correctness of gender roles with the understanding that traditional families are not the most common or effective if you view the meaning of family from a scientific perspective. I understand that I am very blessed to have a functional family who is still together. The meaning of family according to the dictionary: a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household. By that definition, it sounds like there’s a few people stuck together under a single roof. I would like to suggest a slight modification to this definition. Family is a group of people who are affiliated by marriage, birth, legalities, and co-residence who respect each other.

What does it mean to respect each other? As a 31 year old bachelor without children, I will not address showing respect to your spouse or kids. I will talk about  respecting parents. I could mention the secular understanding that respecting yourself is one way to honor your parents, but my understanding of respecting your parents is to learn from them. They spent time teaching us proper ways of how to communicate, socially interact, and make decisions. Their interest is that their children are healthy in mind, body, and soul. It would be disrespectful to disregard that time and act like a fool.

Ask yourself the next time you are doing something foolish such as lying, gossiping, driving home buzzed, or sitting in a tattoo parlor is this respecting myself, my family,… my parents?  Our fourth commandment tells us to honor our parents. This is the only commandment that comes with a promise… you can find it in Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long…” God wishes us to live long… with wisdom!

Benjamin Horbowy