According to Judith Harris, who wrote an article on her thoughts about parents really mattering, she thinks that peers matter much more than the parents. I have to say that I agree with this but only to a point. I think it really depends on the type of person that you are dealing with. I look at my own life and think about what it was like for me when I grew up. .
I am an only child and my mother is a lady of elegance who only wanted the best for me. Unfortunately our opinions of what was "elegant- and what was "cool- were completely opposite. I was blessed with big frizzy hair, bad eyes, and a misshapen body. Everyday I would go to school and sit by myself. People would constantly call me names or laugh at me, just because of the way I looked and dressed. On top of this, my parents would constantly fight with each other and my social skills were becoming nonexistent. I was absolutely miserable but then I finally decided to do something about it. I learned about contacts and blow-drying my hair and pretty soon, I fortunately grew into my body. I went to school and barely anybody even recognized me but their attitudes were now completely different. No more name calling or laughing or teasing. I was one of them, one of the popular ones, but I still wasn't happy. I soon began to realize that I had changed myself not necessarily because I wanted to, but because I felt like I had to. My parents always told me that I was beautiful without changing myself but I never listened because I wanted to be more accepted by my peers than by my parents. .
Now when I look back on my middle school years, I realize that my parents really did not play a part in my life at all and if I was writing this back then, I probably would have agreed with the statement, but looking at it now "the long run later, I see that my parents really played more of a role in my life than my peers. I listen to what they say and I understand, now, why my mother wants me to dress in a certain way and act in a certain way, and I don't care if my peers accept it or not.