Parenting Styles

Theres the parent who spoils their kid rotten, and on the other end of the spectrum theres that parent in the grocery store loudly disciplining their kid in the canned food aisle while everyone looks away awkwardly and pretends not to notice, secretly feeling sorry for the kid and looking down on the mother, or conversely feeling sorry for the mother and looking down on the kid as a brat. Theres a whole bunch of parenting styles out there, and theyre not always everyones cup of tea. Depending on the person, they will see some parenting styles as appropriate and others not, and their views are strongly influenced by the way they were raised themselvessome pass on the styles they were raised in and others rebel against them.

Parenting your kid is something you have to figure out on your own, so its natural that you would draw from your own experiences growing up, using the way that your parents raised you as a model for raising your own kids, or applying that model to other families. Others draw from their experiences and disapprove of that model, and they view it and use it as an example of how not to raise your children. Parenting styles can also differ according to culture, and they can be interpreted differently depending on the region. For example, leaving your kid to figure things on their own might be seen as cold and distant by some people, while other people might see this as an effective way to teach a child how to be independent, a trait that is prized in certain cultures. This diversity and difference of opinion is why a variety of parenting styles exists.

Its hard to say that theres one correct type of parenting style, because different styles can work for different people. It depends on the parent, the child, and the environment which are very broad factors encompassing a myriad of traits, actions and experiences. For example, some parents might adopt the independent parenting style based on their experience, and the child might respond positively to it or not. The temperament of the child and the culture theyre in would interact and contribute to the outcome. Maybe the child is temperamentally a go-getter and combined with a culture that has a go-getter mentality, it could have a really good outcome. On the other hand, it could turn out badly if the child is temperamentally timid. Its really difficult to say until you try it out and see what happens. In the end, whats most important is how children turn out and how they feel about it, and whatever they experience will influence the next generation and generations to come.