parentism

English

Etymology

parent +‎ -ism

Noun

parentism (countable and uncountable, plural parentisms)

1. (uncountable) (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Discrimination against parents.
   • 1985, Peter Ribbins, Schooling and Welfare, page 99:

     I've come to label an attitude that lies in most of us and dominates in some as 'parentism' - that is presuming deficiences in people because they are parents.

   • 1993, American Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings of the Annual Meeting - Volume 105, page 37:

     Why indulge the reader's ageism, sexism, or (the neologicstic) "parentism"?

   • 2017 June 15, Bella B, “Parentism: a poorly recognized yet dangerous form of discrimination”, in Medium‎^[1]:

     Similar to other forms of categorizations and discrimination we develop to deal with the complexity of our social life, ´parentism´ emerges as a way of simplifying our interactions with people that are different from ´us ´, stereotyping them into others´.

   • 2021, R Akdeniz, Karl Tomm's Internalized Other Interviewing: From Theory to Practice:

     As he explains it, “there is a virtual epidemic of sexism, heterosexism, racism, ethnocentrism, classism, parentism, professionalism, and so forth in our culture and communities” (p. 181).

2. (uncountable) Pathological or unhealthy parenting.
   • 1977, MC Maultsby, “Parentism: A behavioral analysis and rational solution”, in Voices: Journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, volume 12, number 4:

     Five irrational cognitive, emotive, and physical behaviors are described, and it is suggested that Rational Behavior Therapy, utilizing such techniques as rational self-analysis and rational emotive imagery, can help parents rid themselves of "parentism."

   • 1978, William F. Kraft, Normal Modes of Madness: Hurdles in the Path to Growth, page 72:

     A popular form of parentism is motherism. Motherism occurs when being a mother permeates and guides my entire life so that I identify totally with being a mother and fail to realize myself in other ways.

   • 2010, Mary E. DeMuth, Building the Christian Family You Never Had, page 177:

     Many of our families suffer from parentism. Either our children are too attached to us as they leave (maybe!) the home, or we are guilty of overprotection.

3. (uncountable) Parental determinism; the belief that parenting is responsible for the character and behavior of the child.
   • 2007, Kenneth Oldfield, “Achieving social class diversity throughout the workforce: A case study of TIAA-CREF”, in Kevin Cahill and Lene Johannessen, editor, Considering Class: Essays on the Discourse of the American Dream:

     Why do so few Americans recognize the effects of “parentism,” if you will? Why is there still no popular reform movement directed against the problem of wildly unequal starts?

   • 2008, Francine P. Peterman, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Partnering to Prepare Urban Teachers: A Call to Activism, page 104:

     Working for many years with preservice teachers, we have been faced with these forms of parentism on a regular basis.

   • 2013, Hortense Calisher, Standard Dreaming:

     In the parentism produced by the Society of the Child, one never blames the child.

   • 2023, Paul Mutsaers, “Decolonising youth justice, rethinking childhood: Caribbean counterstories in detention”, in Youth Justice:

     Logically, parentism sees the nuclear family as the principal site of child-rearing, the two-parent household as the preferred child caregiving arrangement, and multiple attachments as a risk for child development.

4. (uncountable) The promotion of having children as a social ideal.
   • 1851, Charles Fourier, The Passions of the Human Soul - Volume 2, page 345:

     Amongst you, O civilizees! parentism ruling in exclusive development is judged praiseworthy, because it accords with the civilizee régime; but at a few paces from your civilizee countries, and from Morocco to Pekin, parentism is no longer praiseworthy; the system of seraglios and eunuchs, with the sale of women, the custom of separating mothers from their male children when nine years old, leaves no development for parentism, for the enjoyments of home and of the family; the only one that remains is for masculine tactism, or the passion of the pleasures of touch.

   • 1997, Elaine Tyler May, Barren in the Promised Land, page 182:

     Many of these baby boomers are fed up with what they consider to be "a tyranny of parentism, " according to Leslie Lafayette, founder of the 2,500-member Childfree Network, one of several groups formed since the 1960s to support the choice to be childless.

   • 2014, Michael Banner, The Ethics of Everyday Life, page 61:

     This celebration of freedom and independence was hatched, as May sees it, in revolt against the baby boom and the "tyranny of parentism' as it has been described.

5. (uncountable) The granting of absolute authority to parents.
   • 1977, Telos - Issues 30-32, page 97:

     Hence in this case, it can be demonstrated conclusively that Freud was blinded by parentism, that he consistently misinterpreted the defensive communications of the parents as the inevitable psycho-sexual development of the child.

   • 1987, Ulfat Afzal, Romeo and Juliet in the Light of Eastern Folk-tales, page 20:

     in their criticism of the tyranny of parentism and their plea for moderate liberty in the choice of a wife or of a husband .

   • 2002, S. A. H. Abidi, Living Beyond Conflict: For Peace and Tolerance, page 71:

     The value of parentism includes general vertical and horizontal relationships where the junior is to respect and obey the senior always.

   • 2007, J. M. Ledgard, Giraffe, page 115:

     The only ideology is parentism, of when and how much and how loud.

6. (uncountable) Paternal or maternal feeling and behavior.
   • 1796, Edward Henry Iliff, Angelo: A Novel, Founded on Melancholy Facts:

     I debated the matter—Reason was driven from her post and parentism prevail'd.

   • 1851, M. Edgeworth Lazarus, The Human Trinity; Or Three Aspects of Life:

     In regard to the Teeth, page 30, Dr. Redfield remarks to me, that hte upper incisors depict in man, not the social faculties of friendship and ambition, but those of familism or parentism, whose very strong development is first observed in early childhood, in the love of pets and dolls — playing at father and mother, especially in little girls.

   • 1998, Legal and Mental Health Perspectives on Child Custody Law, page 74:

     The problem–one that has been insoluble when efforts have been made to deconstruct other custody criteria–is giving content to the friendly parentism while minimizing the risk that its vague and indeterminate qualities will be misused to cover decisions based unduly on decisionmakers' personal values.

   • 2013, Dan Savage, American Savage:

     Brown and I stumbled, again and again, onto things we had in common: activism, Catholicism, parentism.

   • 2022, Jonathan Beecher, Charles Fourier: The Visionary and His World, page 145:

     but he was careful to suppress it, and in so doing he discovered within himself hitherto unknown reservoirs of "parentism".

7. The assumption of a parental role in the context of a relationship other than the parent-child relationship.
   • 1975, G. Janet Tulloch, A Home is Not a Home: Life Within a Nursing Home, page 34:

     Joady would joke in an attempt to escape Susan's image of parentism, although she knew all of their differing tactics were intended as loving nudges to keep Gerda from "declining."

   • 1989, Iain Chalmers, Murray Enkin, Marc J. N. C. Keirse, Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth: Pregnancy, page 157:

     Childbirth educators can also suffer from parentism, deciding what is best for their clients.

   • 1998, Sun Myung Moon, Earthly Life and Spirit World I-II, page 153:

     Therefore, democracy is brotherhoodism. After the end of brotherhoodism, parentism will emerge.

   • 2005, R Knight, “Should patients get the treatment they want?”, in Practical Neurology:

     Elements of ‘parentism’ are necessary and powerful elements of clinical practice.

8. (countable) A cliché used by parents with their children.
   • 2009, Jimmy Greaves, Greavsie: The Autobiography, page 1608:

     By far the most bewildering parentism was heard when I tried something dangerous, such as walking along a wall. 'Get down off that wall,' my mum would say, 'or there's going to be a crying match.'

   • 2010, Melissa Howell, Greg Howell, Fusion: Where You and God Connect, page 147:

     "Because I said so" has got to be the absolute worst parentism on the planet, and a sorry, lame excuse for an answer as well.

   • 2010, Rebecca D. Snyder, Sittin' Like a Queen on a Throne:

     I couldn't believe that I actually used a parentism on my sweet baby boy.

   • 2011, Nicole Johnson, It's Us: How Can I Sort Out the Issues of My Family Life?:, page 14:

     Some parentisms are funny, like, "If you poke your eye out, don't come crying to me!" And did you ever think about the fact that you can't poke your eye out.? Really. You can only poke it in.

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