What’s Your Parenting Style: Too Hard, Too Soft or Just Right?

A recent article in The New York Times caught our eye last week. It makes us think about the different parenting styles when raising children. Of course, this is not at all new as there have been many studies and experiments in the last forty years, many done by Diana Baumrind who is a clinical psychologist from the University of California, Berkeley, opened our eyes to ways to parents can motivate their children to succeed in life.

Baumrind recognized three different parenting styles: Authoritarian, Permissive and Authoritative. Out of those three, Authoritative is the perfect blend of the other two with moderate demand and moderate responsiveness towards the child, and a strong belief in the child’s autonomy. These types of parents have optimal involvement with their child being there to guide him/her, but letting their child make mistakes to learn from it.

It raises questions to ask: Which parenting style best describes you? How involved are you with your child? Do you praise your child too much? How often do you give into their demands?

As a parent, you want to help steer your child in the right direction and hope he/she is able to make the right decision. It begins early. As a toddler, you lend a guiding hand as they learn to walk, but don’t come running to pick them up when they first stumble; at school age, you look over their shoulder as they do their homework, but let them figure out the answers; and then as a teenager, you allow them to make right and wrong choices because you know they have to figure it out on their on eventually. Your hope as a parent is that they choose the correct paths to go down while growing up. Your children are the reflection of you. If they succeed, you can pat yourself on the back knowing you did your job as a parent.

Read The New York Times article here.