Whether children maximize their potential as they journey through life is determined largely by the environment in which they grow up. This environment is created substantially by parents through the parenting style adopted in bringing up each child. In other words, your parenting style goes a long way in shaping the personalities of your children. The personal qualities parents nurture in their children may ultimately determine whether they maximize their potential or not.
There are three basic parenting styles. Whichever of these parenting styles you adopt in raising your children will have a tremendous impact on their future welfare.
Permissive Parenting
A permissive parent is one who allows children to do just what they want, with limited input, guidance, or direction from the parent. In such homes, rules and boundaries are limited or often non-existent. While such parents appear on the surface to be warm and nurturing, they do a lot of damage to the personalities of their children by being uninvolved in the details of their everyday activities.
Children who grow up under a permissive parenting style often wish they had parents who enforced the limits, provided guidelines and disciplined them. Such children end up feeling unimportant, neglected, and unloved.
Authoritarian Parenting
This is the dictatorial style of parenting, which compels children to do only as the parents say and no more. With this parenting style, children are not allowed to express their opinions about issues, and this promotes the belief that ‘children are to be seen and not heard.’
Children who grow up in such an environment end up feeling unloved and afraid. They are likely to go through life often reluctant to express their opinion about issues, even in the work place.
Authoritative Parenting
This is the best parenting style. This parenting style will most likely produce children who are well adjusted to life. The demands that authoritative parents make on their children are mostly nurturing and reasonable. Such parents communicate frequently with their children in ways that are appropriate to the child’s age and level of understanding. The parents lay down reasonable rules for the children to follow and ensure those rules are appropriately enforced. The reasons for the rules are also clearly explained. High goals and expectations are set and clearly communicated to the children. The children are also allowed to express their opinions on matters that affect them and the family.
Children who grow up under such a parenting style are well adjusted to life. They are usually calm and self-confident and are better equipped to maximize their potential as they journey through life.
The choice is yours as a parent to decide which of the above parenting styles you want to adopt in the upbringing of your children. At ParentingEdge we recommend the authoritative parenting style.
