ABSTRACT
Among white and black working-class and poor families, child-rearing strategies emphasize the "accomplishment of natural growth." These parents believe that as long as they provide love, food, and safety, their children will grow and thrive. They do not focus on developing the special talents of their individual children. The pattern of concerted cultivation, with its stress on individual repertoires of activities, reasoning, and questioning, encourages an emerging sense of entitlement in children. In addition to differences by social class in time use, people also observed differences in language use in the home. As others have noted middle-class parents used more reasoning in their speech with children while working-class and poor parents used more directives. Children do not live their lives inside of the home. Instead, they are legally required to go to school, they go to the doctor, and many are involved in church and other adult-organized activities.
