Who is being Ethical to Family Members?

Who is being Ethical to Family Members?

When we evaluate ethical level of an organization, we concern on whether it brings benefits to and society, whether it harm our nature, whether it is safe to be consumed and so on. So, maybe we can evaluate a person’s ethical level based on the same perspectives, whether she or he is contributing to society, whether she or he bring harm to our nature and whether she or he is threatening others’ safety.

As we know, companies are just companies, what they bring to us is controlled by the people in the companies. Thus, if all the people in the company are ethical, then the company will be an ethical company. And, if the person is being ethical in the company, definitely he or she will be ethical to his or her family. So, we can conclude that a person who is ethical to family will probably being ethical in company. If he cannot be ethical to his family, then we cannot expect him to be ethical to our society. Thus, it is an interesting topic when we look at a person’s personality and his behavior towards his family. It is because most people treat their family in a straight-forward and real way. For example, a student might be very helpful and kind to his teacher and classmates but being very rude to parents. So when we want to know whether a person is kind, we can observe how he treats his family in terms of language, tone, responds and eye-contact.

A few days ago, I visited my grandma who is almost 90 years old. She has been so hardworking and help taking good care of her granddaughter and grandson. And now, the granddaughter grows up and become an adult, she is taking good care of my grandma recently. Although my grandma keep asking her for help when she wants to go to washroom or anything, she is so kind to help the grandma until she herself cannot have enough sleep at night.  However, my grandma is being transferred from one house to one house because she is quite annoying and likes to complain and everyone is too busy and do not have time to look after her. And some of her sons claim themselves have no time to visit her because of heavy workloads, and unfortunately my father is one of them. This is a really sad things happen everywhere. Many parents told their own parents that they have no time to go back hometown while many children do not want to take responsibility on what they should do.

One of my relatives give his daughter more than RM1000 as monthly expenses but only sends her mother RM200 monthly. Many mothers allow their children to have branded watch, expensive clothes, enjoy entertainment but expecting their parents spend within the budget RM200. Yes, we know that mothers should take care of children but how about their parents who brought them up? So, nowadays, people are smarter and know that they have to think about their life after retirement.

I remembered a very interesting view by my teacher, Diamond Daniel Liew, he said, “ Don’t look for a girlfriend before you are able to take care of yourself”. This is very true that some boys look for girlfriends using parents’ money and buy sweet house using parents’ money and so on. I always notice that when my friend’ s parents save a lot on their expenses for children while the children are spending so much on unnecessary things. However, I have a good friend which is the best example among my friends. She is a student in Help college who earns more than RM2000 monthly by teaching piano lessons and book-keeping tuition. She is only 21 years old and already bought a car by installment and she is serious in her studies and maintain good results. She treats her parents so nice and willing to be their driver whenever they need her. She is so good in time management and maintains good self-discipline.

In my opinion, as a student from not so rich family, there are something that we should do:

First, instead of suffering our parents, we try to lower expenses and earn some money to reduce their burden. Second, instead of spending so much time with friends, we should spend more with family. Third, train ourselves to give parents money when we start working.

Moreover, there are some guidelines for us to follow in family ethics. According to National Council on Family Relations, “Family life education includes knowledge about how families work; the inter-relationship of the family and society; human growth and development throughout the life span; both the physiological and psychological aspects of human sexuality; the impact of money and time management on daily life; the importance and value of education for parenting; the effects of policy and legislation on families; ethical considerations in professional conduct; and a solid understanding and knowledge of how to teach and/or develop curriculum for what are often sensitive and personal issues.” Following are the Ethical Principles for Parent and Family Life Educators:

I. Relationships with Parents and Families

1. I will be aware of the impact/power we have on parents and family relations.

2. I will strive to understand families as complex, interactive systems where parents have the primary responsibility as educators, nurturers and limit-setters for their children.

3. I will respect cultural beliefs, backgrounds and differences and engage in practice that is sensitive to the diversity of child-rearing values and goals.

4. I will help parents and other family members recognize their strengths and work with them to set goals for themselves, their children, and others.

5. I will respect and accept parents and other family members for who they are, recognizing their developmental level and circumstances.

6. I will support and challenge parents to continue to grow and learn about parenting and their child's development.

7. I will communicate respectfully and clearly with all family members.

8. I will communicate openly and truthfully about the nature and extent of services provided.

9. I will support diverse family values by acknowledging and examining parenting practices that support healthy family relationships.

10. I will include parents/other family members as partners in problem solving and decision-making related to program design and implementation.

11. I will be proactive in stating child guidance principles and discipline guidelines and encourage non-violent child rearing.

12. I will create data privacy and confidentiality guidelines respectful of family members and protective of their legal rights.

13. I will provide a program environment that is safe and nurturing to all family members.

14. I will ensure that all family members have access to and are encouraged to participate in family education.

15. I will support family members as they make decisions about the use of resources to best meet family needs.

16. I will support healthy interpersonal relationships among all family members.

17. I will encourage family members to explore their values and promote healthy sexuality in their family.

As a conclusion, family life education is a very important factor affecting personal ethics and business ethics. Thus, before concerning on organization ethics we should actually concern on how we treat our family members. As a human being, we always have unlimited opportunities and areas that we can improve to be a better person.  The time is always right to do what is right.-Martin Luther King