Qualities of a Good Son or Daughter

What are the important qualities of a good son or daughter? Have they changed or remained the same over time in your culture? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Within a family, children have their own roles including their behavior, their rights and their responsibilities. As to respond to these roles children are expected to obey as well as to be helpful and willing. It is really important for the family structure, the sons and the daughters to have the quality of obeisance.
However, the parents’ demands differentiate according to the gender of their child. Boys are expected to become mature man as quick as possible in order to look alike their fathers. They should obey in a more practical way as to get ready for the life sooner than the “delicate” daughters. On the other hand, girls are often considered as the privileged or even spoiled ones and they are not charged with the hard works. However, they are obliged to maintain their morality and their humility more than their brothers.
This is why, in the past daughters were only accompanied outdoors by their parents or their older brothers. Nowadays, this is considered as an exaggeration, but still in Greece daughters do not have the same level of freedom as the sons have. To be helpful and willing is a quality always appreciated the most from the family. Therefore, the sons should be willing to help at the heavy jobs and the daughters at the housekeeping. The willingness is a quality to be taught and parents should not wait their children to be considerate without teaching them at first the value of helping.

The greek families of the past could not actually understand that and there were a lot of cases of punishments as the daughters and sons to learn how to behave. Fortunately, the mentalities have changed and improved. To sum up, it is my strong belief that over the period of time the truly important qualities of daughters and sons haven’t changed in my culture. The obeisance and the quality of contributing to the family have remained the same, it is the way we approach them that has changed. PLIGOROPOULOU THALIA