Dictionary

parentism en · NOUN

Etymology

From parent + -ism.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) Discrimination against parents.
   • Why indulge the reader's ageism, sexism, or (the neologicstic) "parentism"? 1993, American Economic Association, Papers and Proceedings of the Annual Meeting - Volume 105, page 37:
   • 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. 1985, Peter Ribbins, Schooling and Welfare, page 99:
   • 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). 2021, R Akdeniz, Karl Tomm's Internalized Other Interviewing: From Theory to Practice:
   • 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´. 2017 June 15, Bella B, “Parentism: a poorly recognized yet dangerous form of discrimination”, in Medium:
2. (uncountable) Pathological or unhealthy parenting.
   • 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." 1977, MC Maultsby, “Parentism: A behavioral analysis and rational solution”, in Voices: Journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, volume 12, number 4:
   • 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. 2010, Mary E. DeMuth, Building the Christian Family You Never Had, page 177:
   • 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. 1978, William F. Kraft, Normal Modes of Madness: Hurdles in the Path to Growth, page 72:
3. (uncountable) Parental determinism; the belief that parenting is responsible for the character and behavior of the child.
   • In the parentism produced by the Society of the Child, one never blames the child. 2013, Hortense Calisher, Standard Dreaming:
   • Working for many years with preservice teachers, we have been faced with these forms of parentism on a regular basis. 2008, Francine P. Peterman, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Partnering to Prepare Urban Teachers: A Call to Activism, page 104:
   • 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? 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:
   • 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. 2023, Paul Mutsaers, “Decolonising youth justice, rethinking childhood: Caribbean counterstories in detention”, in Youth Justice:
4. (uncountable) The promotion of having children as a social ideal.
   • 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. 2014, Michael Banner, The Ethics of Everyday Life, page 61:
   • 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. 1997, Elaine Tyler May, Barren in the Promised Land, page 182:
   • 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. 1851, Charles Fourier, The Passions of the Human Soul - Volume 2, page 345:
5. (uncountable) The granting of absolute authority to parents.
   • 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. 1977, Telos - Issues 30-32, page 97:
   • The only ideology is parentism, of when and how much and how loud. 2007, J. M. Ledgard, Giraffe, page 115:
   • The value of parentism includes general vertical and horizontal relationships where the junior is to respect and obey the senior always. 2002, S. A. H. Abidi, Living Beyond Conflict: For Peace and Tolerance, page 71:
   • in their criticism of the tyranny of parentism and their plea for moderate liberty in the choice of a wife or of a husband . 1987, Ulfat Afzal, Romeo and Juliet in the Light of Eastern Folk-tales, page 20:
6. (uncountable) Paternal or maternal feeling and behavior.
   • 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. 1998, Legal and Mental Health Perspectives on Child Custody Law, page 74:
   • Brown and I stumbled, again and again, onto things we had in common: activism, Catholicism, parentism. 2013, Dan Savage, American Savage:
   • but he was careful to suppress it, and in so doing he discovered within himself hitherto unknown reservoirs of "parentism". 2022, Jonathan Beecher, Charles Fourier: The Visionary and His World, page 145:
   • 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. 1851, M. Edgeworth Lazarus, The Human Trinity; Or Three Aspects of Life:
   • I debated the matter—Reason was driven from her post and parentism prevail'd. 1796, Edward Henry Iliff, Angelo: A Novel, Founded on Melancholy Facts:
7. (countable, uncountable) The assumption of a parental role in the context of a relationship other than the parent-child relationship.
   • Childbirth educators can also suffer from parentism, deciding what is best for their clients. 1989, Iain Chalmers, Murray Enkin, Marc J. N. C. Keirse, Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth: Pregnancy, page 157:
   • 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." 1975, G. Janet Tulloch, A Home is Not a Home: Life Within a Nursing Home, page 34:
   • Elements of ‘parentism’ are necessary and powerful elements of clinical practice. 2005, R Knight, “Should patients get the treatment they want?”, in Practical Neurology:
   • Therefore, democracy is brotherhoodism. After the end of brotherhoodism, parentism will emerge. 1998, Sun Myung Moon, Earthly Life and Spirit World I-II, page 153:
8. (countable) A cliché used by parents with their children.
   • I couldn't believe that I actually used a parentism on my sweet baby boy. 2010, Rebecca D. Snyder, Sittin' Like a Queen on a Throne:
   • 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. 2011, Nicole Johnson, It's Us: How Can I Sort Out the Issues of My Family Life?:, page 14:
   • 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.' 2009, Jimmy Greaves, Greavsie: The Autobiography, page 1608:
   • "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, Melissa Howell, Greg Howell, Fusion: Where You and God Connect, page 147:
   • I've even got subtitles for parentisms like "you're going to poke somebody's eye out with that". 1994 February 2, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic):

Forms