Ex. 3. Discuss the following questions.

1. Is it good or bad to be a member of a big family?

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an only child?

3. What traits of character do single children sometimes develop? What problems are they likely to have in future?

Text: “The Only Child in a Family”

So, I’m the only child in the family and I like it. Of course I’m spoilt a little but it doesn’t disturb me.

The attention is all mine, consequently I’m the apple of my parents’ eyes. I feel lucky, and my friends are jealous because of my single state, particularly because I don’t have to share a bedroom. It’s an advantage. You get undivided attention from your parents. Being alone made me close to animals but it also made me quite demanding. If you don’t have sisters or brothers you need friends and so I tried hard to make them, I am good at making them and such experience is very useful nowadays.

It may be true that an only child is spoilt, but, believe me, there are occasions on which you wish there were a brother or sister to share problems, but when you solve your problems yourself you tend to become a strong and rational person. Besides it’s better to spend more time in the company of adults than with your contemporaries.

I’ve seen a lot of big families where there were two or more children in the family and most of my friends have brothers or sisters. I think that it’s better to be the only child than the other way round. I suppose that only people who have a good financial situation or are rich can afford more than one child, because if not they’ll be making a great mistake.

Most specialists suppose that leaders can only be brought up by families with one child. There are two different situations here.

In one situation parents usually believe in their child’s possibilities, praise him for small successes and reward his good deeds. Thus he becomes self-centered and conceited. He is greedy for money.

In the other situation parents are overprotective, underestimating their child’s skills and talents and often criticizing his efforts to be independent. Thus he is not sure of his real value.

The start into adult life seems to be easier when we take into consideration welfare, comfort and living standards. But from the point of view of maturity his start is more difficult as he becomes independent later than his friends of the same age and sometimes cannot solve simple problems at work because his parents have always done it for him.

Responsible parents should know that family is the first little community where the personality of a child develops and if there are more than three in the family the children can learn in a more natural and easy way how to cope with every day problems and learn to compromise in an argument, as well as understand others and love them. It is much more difficult to bring up an only child as the process of teaching him the terms of living in society is rather artificial. In their books, educational films, and therapy meetings, psychologists give a lot of positive evidence that multi-children families provide a better psychological and socially healthier environment for development.

The parents’ effort to rear their children is rewarded when the children grow up. And when the parents are old it is impossible to be forgotten – from a bunch of kids there are at least one or two who will always remember to hasten to assist their loving parents.

Ex. 1. Read and translate the text.

Ex. 2. Answer the following questions.

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an only child according to the text?

2. Are you an only child? If so, are you sorry you are?

3. How many children would you like to have when you have a family of your own?

Text: “Misunderstanding Between Teenagers and Their Parents”

It is not only the great Russian writer Turgenev who was interested in the question of “fathers and sons”. Every new generation has clashed face to face over this problem. The flash of conflict usually takes place, when the children are teenagers; to be exact, when they’re about 13 – 16 years old.

Worrying about their baby’s health, about what school, friends and clothes to choose, the majority of parents are really keen on looking after their child from infancy onwards. But when their offsprings grow up, they declare that they want to be independent. It is very difficult for parents to understand, that their child has become an adult and wants to make decisions him/herself, wants to be free, even if only partly.

Today, conflicts between children and their parents are a classic case of misunderstandings between different generations.

One of the problems concerns teenager fashion. Nowadays, in most stylish clothes you can’t find anything that looks like normal in your parents’ mind. The clothes you wear do not look stylish to your parents. Meanwhile your parents try to have control over your life and choices. They don’t like things such as red and blue hair, and studs and rings in different parts of your body.

Friends are another vital issue. Parents do not want their child to hang out with a bad crowd. They would like their child to make friends with honest boys and girls, because teenagers with bad habits can spoil their child’s character and future.

The same problem concerns relations with the opposite sex. It happens very often: a young man brings his girlfriend to his house and the parents react in shock with open mouths.

Sometimes, disagreements become so great that teenagers leave home. But almost always they come back, because they are not ready for an independent life.