Kyoiku Mama - Effects On Children

Effects On Children

In the 1950s, full-time mothers devoted themselves to a smaller number of children. Parental stress resulted in the commonality of new childhood illnesses; these include bronchial asthma, stammering, poor appetite, proneness to bone fractures, and school phobia. Children were aware they were their mother's purpose in life. Mothers played the role of their children's school teachers while they were at home.

Children are undoubtedly affected by their mothers. Sometimes, a child who grows up with a kyōiku mama turns into a tenuki okusan (手抜き奥さん), literally a “’no hands’ housewife”. Tenuki okusan usually have jobs and are not around the children as much, essentially becoming the female version of the stereotypical absent Japanese father, a “leisure-time parent” or “Sunday friend”. These mothers do not do a lot of homemaking, commonly making large, freezable meals that are easy to reheat the next day in case they are not home to do the cooking or too busy to do it otherwise. Tenuki okusan do not attempt to represent their families in the community through participation in their children’s school PTA and other community functions.

Compared to modern American children, Japanese youths have less drug use, depression, violence, and teenage pregnancy. However Japan does have the 7th highest adult suicide rate in the world, surpassed only by former Eastern Bloc countries and South Korea, another country where such parenting is widespread