ABSTRACT
This chapter tries to sketch a picture of parenting in Germany. German parenting focus on middle-class families with high levels of formal education, late parenthood, few offspring, and nuclear family arrangements. Middle-class parents are easily accessible for researchers as volunteer to participate in scientific studies. The reunification of the two German states is still observable differences between parenting philosophies in the East and the West. Parenting is affected by culture contact. Parenting goals and practices are part of dynamic cultural systems and prone to change, not only with major societal changes, but with historical time and the flow of generations. German families were patriarchally organized, with the father as the head of the household and the ultimate authority on all family matters. In Germany, more than any other Western country, children's educational achievements depend on the family of origin, high quality daycare could be an effective complement of parenting.
