parenting styles
What kind of parent do you want to be?
Baby may still be small but you can never be too early in planning what kind of parent you want to be. It does without saying that how you parent influences your child’s behavior and character. It is better to practice early the parenting style that will allow your children to become happy, independent individuals. If you decide to just go with the flow of things, you may make wrong decisions and then have a hard time later trying to undo your mistakes.
Let’s take a look at 3 parenting styles: Authoritative, Authoritarian and Permissive.
- Authoritative parenting is the one you want to strive for. You have rules for your children but you enforce them in a nurturing way. You don’t punish without reason and you don’t demand obedience out of fear. You allow your children to choose their course of action and teach them problem solving skills. You acknowledge your children’s feelings instead of shutting them up. You could say this way of parenting strikes a good balance between rules and freedom. Children grow up confident, happy and successful.
- Authoritarian parenting is like the strict parent that you can’t negotiate with. Your children must do everything you say and if they don’t, there will be harsh punishments. A child is obedient out of fear, rather than respect. Because they have no say in anything, their self esteem becomes low. They are not very happy either.
- Permissive parenting is a parent who can’t say “no” to their children. You don’t have many rules and allow your children lots of freedom.You are more like their children’s good friend rather than a parent. In the end, you will have a brat for a child that do not respect authority.
Authoritative parenting doesn’t come naturally. It is a learned skill and you have to make a conscience effort to practice it. It is in the best interest of your children that you learn how to parent the right way.
