Should there be a 'parenting' skill?

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Yes, I think Parenting is something that requires skill, and no, I don't agree that it is Easy. Judging from the number of people who seem to be terrible, incompetent parents who feed their children garbage, or never discipline them, or else discipline infants by shaking them to death, or let their children wander into traffic, or leave poisonous chemicals within easy reach, or just leave their children in front of the TV 24/7, it is a skill that people need to learn from other adults.

It should probably have an IQ default.

Is it worthwhile using it as a Skill in GURPS? Only if it is important to the campaign. It might be interesting to have a campaign lasting many in-game years in which PCs are required to raise into responsible adulthood the willful, semi-divine or super-powered children who will be necessary to save humanity from some prophesied disaster.

[Xplo]

I like the idea of a Parenting skill that works like Soldier.

I'd say that in many situations, you'd roll the higher of Parenting or (appropriate skill). So if you have high Psychology or Intimidation skills, you can use those when appropriate, but they won't make you a super-parent. Likewise, Parenting should probably take penalties for the age of the subject; teens are notoriously difficult to deal with, and Parenting skill ought to be all-but-useless on adults.

[pawsplay]

Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi

Yes, I think Parenting is something that requires skill, and no, I don't agree that it is Easy.

Easy doesn't mean it's a picnic, just that it's something human beings tend to pick up with a certain level of natural readiness. I'm going to be optimistic and say most people have the capacity to learn Parenting pretty well using their common sense and instincts.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Xplo

I like the idea of a Parenting skill that works like Soldier.

... Likewise, Parenting should probably take penalties for the age of the subject; teens are notoriously difficult to deal with, and Parenting skill ought to be all-but-useless on adults.

Most parents don't learn generic parenting. They learn parenting (their kids) a very limited form.
Dealing with my severe anxiety and complete social incompetence did not train my mom for my brother's promisuity and complete lack of common sense. Neither trained for my youngest brother's superb manipulation skills, or his near lack of empathy.
My mom would be completely untrained for dealing with girls.
Dealing with a specific group of people shouldn't fall under one single skill, in my opinion.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by pawsplay

... I'm going to be optimistic and say most people have the capacity to learn Parenting pretty well using their common sense and instincts.

Most parents probably simply do what their parents did, with some consciously chosen differences. That's not a skill, but more like rote repetition.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Most parents probably simply do what their parents did, with some consciously chosen differences. That's not a skill, but more like rote repetition.

Not that is a skill, the follows a sertial tradition. That like saying some that someone learning Karate does not have a skill because they jut doing what the senssei did, because they did not learn Kung-fu

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi

Is it worthwhile using it as a Skill in GURPS? Only if it is important to the campaign. It might be interesting to have a campaign lasting many in-game years in which PCs are required to raise into responsible adulthood the willful, semi-divine or super-powered children who will be necessary to save humanity from some prophesied disaster.

I adopted it for my Transhuman Space campaign because one of the PCs had an eleven-year-old daughter, and we kept running into questions where it made sense to have such a skill. That's generally true of any Professional Skill.

Bill

[Fish]

Originally Posted by trooper6

Like other professional skills, it is IQ based, and like other GURPS skills in general you can always float to other bases if the situation calls for it.

True: but there are exceptions for skills that cross wide boundaries of individual ability. Sex Appeal and Erotic Art, for instance; also Musical Composition and Musical Instrument.

I make this argument because if Parenting were one skill, it would be very easy to become good at it over 18 years — I've already pointed out how quickly those hours of self-study stack up — whereas if it were two skills, based on two different stats, not quite so much.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Fish

True: but there are exceptions for skills that cross wide boundaries of individual ability. Sex Appeal and Erotic Art, for instance; also Musical Composition and Musical Instrument.

I make this argument because if Parenting were one skill, it would be very easy to become good at it over 18 years — I've already pointed out how quickly those hours of self-study stack up — whereas if it were two skills, based on two different stats, not quite so much.

But not so quick when you consider it is not so much self study in most cases, but on the job training.

and those exaction you gave are on another stat because that the primary state those skills uses. And with parenting most usages are IQ--deftly not HT. HT bases skill are endurance type physical skills, parenting is primarily metal based

[Fish]

I didn't give IQ and HT as an example, I gave IQ and Will. I can see the possibility for a parent with a high Will but a low IQ having good disciplinary skills but poor in other tasks.

Furthermore, as I said, an IQ-only skill doesn't take into account the universal nature of parenting. What about a family of dogs, who have IQ under 6?