Different Parenting Styles

When it concerns evaluating different parenting styles it pays to expect at the very outset that each parenting style has its own characteristics – some good and some bad. However, there are four main different parenting styles that need to be considered and these include authoritarian and authoritative as well as permissive and finally, uninvolved.

The last type of parenting style or uninvolved is one in which the parents take no notice of what their children do and therefore the term uninvolved is most apt to describe this particular different parenting style and it is also a parenting style that does not deserve more than a casual mention.

However, of the other different parenting styles, the authoritarian as well as authoritative and permissive parenting styles have distinct features that separate one from the other. On the one side there is the authoritarian parenting style while at its opposite end there is the permissive style of parenting and in between these two different parenting styles there is the authoritative parenting style.

There is also another aspect to judging different parenting styles and this is that there are two distinct aspects that help distinguish one parenting style from the other: structure as well as responsiveness. The structure of different parenting styles involves the rules as well as limits that are formed to govern the child’s behavior and it is in fact the major factor used in the authoritarian parenting style.

Responsiveness on the other hand is something that distinguishes different parenting styles in that the parent has different amount of sensitivity to their children’s pleas and voice. This characteristic involves addressing a child’s needs and wants and in fact responsiveness is a major factor in the permissive style of parenting.

This shows that different parenting styles have their own salient points with authoritarian parenting styles being strong on structure while responsiveness of parents is the main factor governing the permissive style of parenting. However, among different parenting styles the authoritative parenting style is supreme, being more balanced as well as being more effective in bringing up a child in the proper manner. Parents that use the authoritative parenting style can be more engaging, flexible and will also strive to lead by example.

Regardless of which particular different parenting style is used it is necessary to emphasize that parents should always remember that they are after all human and so they should enforce the rules in a more reasonable manner without being too inflexible or rigid in the process.