It seems there a gulf between what parents in Hong Kong say they know about their children’s work—with 79% saying they are knowledgeable about their child’s role—and the amount of children who say their parents understand their day-to-day role, 50%. The findings by LinkedIn mark the launch of the networking website’s third Bring in Your Parents Day—a worldwide event on 5 November in which workers invite their parents into the workplace to give them an inside view of their working life.
It comes in the wake of new research by LinkedIn which found that children today want so-called ‘Lighthouse Parents’—parents who remain a beacon of encouragement and advice without being too overbearing or taking too much of a step back. Of the parents who were surveyed, 48% of Hong Kong parents described themselves as such, in comparison with other parenting styles such as ‘free-range’, ‘well-wishers’, ‘concierge’ and ‘helicopter parenting’.
While children and parents can find such advice and encouragement welcome, the results also showed that 48% of parents often find themselves with an opinion to offer but refrain from actually giving it—the main reasons amounting to giving their children the space as adults and not wanting to interfere. But this advice in fact might have been more valued than parents realised as 15% of Hong Kong’s workers said they felt advice was stopped too early and 31% felt that advice could have really helped them deal with problems at work.
Bring in Your Parents Day will be held in 17 countries including the United Kingdom, United States, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Australia, India, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, China, Japan and Hong Kong, and encourages businesses and individuals worldwide to take part in the day. Globally, 25,000 people took part in 2014.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
