There is no doubt that parenting is a tough task. It structures children’s outlook by teaching them learn discipline, obedience, respect and self-esteem.
As parents play a vital role in promoting the child’s growth and development, it is essential to find a parenting style that suits your child’s personality and makes them healthy and happy.
Although parents may differ in the way they raise their children, every parent has the same desire: for their children to be and have the “best”.
Every parent makes an effort to be the best parent and shape their children to be perfect. As their children grow older, however, parents often find that the way they are doing things is not working and start exploring other options.
As they confront the pertinent issues, parents are forced to adapt their perceptions to understand their Kids’ world views. While there is no textbook solution to being a perfect parent, adopting a general parenting style or recognizing what is wrong with your present one can be a major stepping stone to establishing a loving and trusting relationship with your children.
Types of parenting styles
Research shows that there are four predominant styles of parenting: permissive, authoritarian, authoritative and uninvolved. Identify your style, examine others and adopt one that you think will benefit your children.
Permissive parenting: Parents of this type are tolerant and generous towards their children, sometimes to a fault. They give in to every wish of their child and are often lenient with discipline. They are highly sensitive to the developmental and emotional needs of their children. These parents find difficulty in setting firm boundaries for their children.
They encourage their children to think for themselves and do things freely on their own. The down side of this type of parenting is that the children often have a hard time getting along with others, as they can be seen as immature, disobedient and hesitant to accept responsibilities.
Authoritarian parenting: As it suggests, this type of parenting exercises strict rules over children. Parents of this type usually set high standards and expectations for their children along with several rules and restrictions. Parents often expect their children to follow their orders without any excuse.
Children of these parents often perform well at school and stay out of trouble, but lack self-confidence and have poor social skills. They feel curtailed because they have no freedom to make decisions for themselves. The downside of this style of parenting is that children often rebel against their parent’s authority, while the positive is that they develop a sense of responsibility.
Authoritative parenting: Slightly different from authoritarian but run along the same principle that rules are important, this parenting style also exercises high levels of control but parents explain the rules and limits to their children in a polite and respectable fashion.
They set high expectations for their children but are more open and understanding than authoritarian parents. The up side is that children become involved in decision-making processes and learn to take responsibility for their actions, while the down side is that they may become stubborn and rebel as they feel they are not being heard.
Uninvolved parenting: These kinds of parents appear to take nothing seriously, are unresponsive to child’s needs and exercise little control over their children.
They exhibit little commitment towards their child in providing love and care. Children of these parents are often unable to mingle with others, find it difficult to maintain relationships, and can show aggressive behavior.