Based on our research to understand how Nigerian parents raise their children, we found that parents who micromanage their teens decreases teenager’s confidence in their daily life at home and outside the home, even much later in life. In our research, we asked a wide range of Nigerian-American teenagers what they think about their parents. Most of the teens agreed that Nigerian parents are micromanagers. In fact, many of the teenagers that we interviewed compared Nigerian parenting style to Chinese.
In addition, many of the teenagers used phrases such as “helicopter parents” to describe Nigerian parenting style. In other words, Nigerian parents are always hovering around their teen’s orbit or space whether it be at home or outside of the home. But, the most interesting phrase we heard during our research is “hawk parents”. Nigerian-American teenagers used this phrase to capture the idea that Nigerian parents are like hawks who hover and watch them from above just to catch their mistakes.
Interesting, we asked Nigerian-American teens if they will be bold enough to share their opinion and ideas at www.NigerianParents.com. As a result, their excitement was overwhelming and genuine to take part in this exciting venture. In fact, one of the teenagers pretended that she was already on a keyboard typing away her opinion being raised by Nigerian-American parents. Hence, the teen participants asked us to create an opportunity for them to interact with each other, tell their stories, but most importantly, say how they feel about Nigerian parenting style, and we obliged.
We were obligated to allow teenagers to interact with each other because the primary goal of “Nigerian Parents Magazine” is to facilitate a sustained conversation on how to raise Nigerian-American children and teens who are rooted in Nigeria traditions and values to help shape the future of America being raised as Nigerian-American. Therefore, “Our Kids Talk” was created so that teens can share their experiences being raised as Nigerian-Americans and interact with each other.
While we look forward to what Nigerian-American teenagers have to say, Nigerian parents are also welcomed to express their opinions in the portal as well to understand the upraising of Nigerian-American children and teenagers. However, “Nigerian Parents Magazine” management team must understand and apply with all laws, rules, and regulations, as well as provide confidentiality of our customers in order to develop informative and interactive conversations.
Therefore, we must inform our participants and readers that the opinions expressed on “Our Kids Talk” are that of the writer and each writer name will be confidential Overall, the kind conversation we want to facilitate will be that of honesty and sincerity, and will be uncensored. Our goal is to make “Our Kids Talk” fun, interesting, and interactive. Most importantly, honest and sincere conversations will help achieve the promise we made to our target audience that there will be no dull moments at “Our Kids Talk” as we grow and expand.
Management Team
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Nigerian parents are both a blessing and a curse (mostly blessing, though). It’s clear they always want the best for you, but sometimes they get you to realize it the hard way. They always start with the widely known “when I was your age…” story, then proceed to get you to understand how much better you have it because of how you were born in the US. I’m always grateful to live the life I live, but it gets annoying when I’m supposed to meet certain expectations for them when I don’t even know what I want to be yet. Anyone else gotten that story?
Most Nigerian parents have a similar way of raising their kids. They tend to be somewhat strict because they want what is best for their children. I think that sometimes as Nigerian Americans we feel the pressure come both from our parents and other Nigerian kids around us. Just last night my mother was telling me how competitive Nigerians are, but how at the same time, we work so hard and strive to get what we want, especially when you are not originally from the U.S. When you are constantly seeing and hearing that, it can take a toll on us. I think that our parents need to find a better way to communicate without them sounding mad all the time (of course not all parents.) But then again, I see where they are coming from because all they want for their kids is for us to live stress free lives which begin at our education and leadership skills, and it is really up to us to use those resources to our best abilities.