What Type of Parenting Style Do You Use With Your Children?

• Uninvolved Parenting – This parenting style is very hands off and many parents often meet their child’s basic needs.  Many parents don’t care what their children are doing.  Uninvolved parenting is often referred to as neglectful parenting.  The children are often starved for attention and spend very little time interacting with their parents.  A child that grows up in this environment often have problems later in life with social interactions, self esteem issues, and less competitive.  There are no boundaries and kids are forced to become independent because they can’t count on their parents for support.
• Indulgent Parenting – This parenting style is very unresponsive to correcting behavioral issues and parents give into their kids demands.  Many children that grow up with this type of parenting are often times spoiled brats and the parent is focused on being the child’s friend instead of being a parent.  Children who grow up in this type of environment often exhibit these problems later in life: as a teen they may become reckless, perform poorly in school, impulsive, experiment with drugs, become a thrill seeker, and experience trouble with authority.
• Authoritative Parenting – This parenting style helps parents create boundaries for their children while nurturing a loving relationship with their child.  Parents allow their child to help with solving their problems and responsive to their child’s needs and feelings.  Discipline is done in a supportive and loving way instead of punitive.  This is the best parenting style as it fosters a child’s self worth, self esteem, they are happy, loving environment, nurturing, and set them up for future success.
• Authoritarian Parenting – This parenting style creates strict boundaries for their children.  Once a child oversteps the outlined boundaries, the child receives immediate punishment, no questions asked.  Parents also don’t explain why the behavior was out of line; instead, they respond with “because I said so” or “because you knew the rules already”.   Parents who use this method of parenting like to stay in control and rarely listen to their child’s request or let them express their feelings.  Children raised in this type of home are likely to exhibit these problems or behaviors: have a nervous breakdown, run away, aren’t as happy, struggles with some self-esteem issues, and often struggle in social situations.

While we all strive to be the best parents we can be to our kids there are certain parenting pitfalls that we can avoid.

What style of parenting do you use?